A take home baby!

The only thing that I really prayed for was a healthy, happy take home baby - and we got it! I was sitting in my hospital bed on my last day, Harper had just finished eating and we fell asleep together with her on my chest, and I started crying. What a great experience it was to have the baby with you in the room and to get to do such silly and mundane things like fall asleep with your baby. We are so blessed and I still can't believe that I actually got to leave the hospital WITH my baby this time! It was a process trying to get out of the hospital of course, but that's to be expected. One bit of news - my OB stopped by when we were trying to get checked out and we were laughing about going into labor the day before my scheduled c-section. I asked if I freed his schedule up on Friday morning then and he informed me that he had had 2 emergency deliveries and they would have called me to postpone my delivery anyway!! Oh, I would have been frantic! It was hectic going a day early, but if they would have called me delaying my surgery, I think I would have broke down. From the sounds of it, it might have been a few days, not just a few hours delay. Ugh, thank goodness Harper decided to get the heck out of dodge when she did!

So we are home now and things are good. My Mom and Dad are here making our lives easier and Gavin has only had a couple meltdowns. I am worried about the day that everyone leaves, but many people do it so we'll just have to muddle through it. We had a follow up appointment at the pediatricians office as Harper's bilirubin levels (jaundice) were elevated and they still are so home health delivered a bili bed yesterday that she has to lay on when she is not eating. As much time as she can spend on the blue lights in a 24 hour period will only help her get over her jaundice that much quicker. A nurse stopped by today to take more blood and check her progress and mentioned it could take 3-4 days of light therapy to get the levels to where they need to be. Yesterday her bilirubin levels were 19.8 and they need to get to 10 to get off the lights, so it could take a few days. She looked liked she had a really bad fake tan, but her coloring is already better today. It's a bit sad because it means we can't really hold her except for when she's feeding but I am glad that she can be home for this and not still in the hospital. I am able to breast feed her, so I still get to hold her, but am looking forward to the time when she can be off the lights.

Here is Harper in her nice wooden bassinet at the hospital - this was one thing we missed out on with Gavin (remember his jail like crib in the NICU?).



Here's a picture of her crazy hair - I love it when it is sticking up all over her head!



All dressed up and no place to go! We were waiting for the hospital photographer to come and take her hospital pictures.



Going home day!! Daddy and Harper.



Mommy and Harper are ready to go home!

No matter how big the baby is, they always look tiny in their car seats!

This pictures shows a bit of her "fake tan" look!

Here is a picture of Harper in her bili bed. The nurse said a lot of babies scream because they hate it so much. Harper takes it in stride and doesn't seem to mind it much at all. Looks like an x-ray machine in this picture.



So that's the latest from our world. I'll keep you updated or at least try to upload pictures even if I don't have time to blog. Hope you all are well and talk to you soon!