Saturday 7/22/17

This week has been full of so many emotions.  From surgery to recovery to leaving the hospital empty handed, I have been a complete mess.  I truly am thankful for all the support we have been given and I appreciate every text, phone call, and message.  Forgive me if I haven't updated everyone in a timely manner on things.

I started this blog in an effort to streamline the communication and make things as efficient as possible so I can maintain some level of control (Hi my name is Elaina and I've got lots of problems and control is one of them).  Most of what is going on now has to do with Madelynn and I, but as I move forward this blog will be used to update everyone on all the chaos that is #pykalife.

I'll post more details on Madi's birth tomorrow when I have enough time to gather my thoughts.  I want to make sure I tell her birth story in a way that encompasses all the feelings Jason and I had, so that will take some time to think through.  Today, however, was the BEST DAY and there were several good updates that I will leave you with for now.

Today, Madelynn was weaned off of the CPAP to a "regular" oxygen cannula in her nose.  She has been weaned from the ventilator to the CPAP, and now to the oxygen cannula.  All of this is very good progress.  She is breathing on her own now, and they almost went directly from CPAP to "room air."   Her bilirubin levels are also back to a normal range so they have taken off the phototherapy light.  So basically, in the span of 24 hours she went from looking like this

To This...

Isn't she super cute?  Yeah, we thought so too.  It's nice to be able to see some of her features without all the wires and machines.  Also - side note - taking pictures in the NICU is relatively impossible.  You have to keep everything sterile, so most of the time pictures are taken through a plastic Ziploc bag on your phone...I have been craving a picture of me and my sweet girl so badly.  But, I digress.

 

The GREATEST part about today...the greatest part of all of the days so far...I GOT TO HOLD HER for the first time.  When they handed her to me, of course the waterworks came flowing like Niagra Falls.  All of the anxiety, all of the fear, all of the times that I tried to hold them back and keep strong because that's what good parents do for their children...all of them came out...streaming down tears of relief, tears of joy, tears of thankfulness.  I finally had my baby in my arms.

I will get to hold her for one feeding per day for now, and although they say she benefits greatly from it, I'm sure I benefitted more today.  I'm so thankful for this precious life we were entrusted with.  Today was one of the happiest days of my life.  I got to hold my baby girl.