Our Sweet Love Story: February 2019

Maggie's first month was a pretty unique one for us since she had to spend most of it in the hospital. Thankfully, she came home just before she was four weeks old. The hospital environment is not well-suited for decent picture taking. During her hospital stay, we spent most of that time getting her on the hospital's required feeding schedule of full bottle feedings every three hours or eight times a day. It is a pretty strict schedule, but she actually took well to it once I could stay with her and handle all of her feedings. She was taking up to 50 ml or almost 2 ounces each feeding by the time she was discharged. She was also gaining weight very well each day. We do have to use a bottle for all her feedings because she cannot latch and suck strongly enough to nurse because of a cleft in the back of her palate. We are very thankful this seems to be the only major issue she has although we are still waiting for additional hearing screenings to see if she may have inherited Daddy's genetic hearing issue like big brother Mattox. We are going to be getting an ABR performed now that she has been discharged as her ENT does not think it will be beneficial to try another hearing screening since she will likely fail because of fluid in her ear. Babies with cleft palates are very prone to getting fluid in their ears so we may need to get tubes down the road. Maggie's hospital stay did not help us get her on a good sleep routine although she generally slept most of the time between feedings anyway since she was a preemie who still needed to conserve all her energy for growing. I have been primarily pumping since Maggie was born, and the hospital was good about using my breast milk to feed her. We will continue pumping and expressing breast milk as long as we can. We use a special Dr. Brown's bottle that allows her to get the milk out with less suction and mostly just compressing the nipple. She eats well and does not spit up much . Despite the difficulties of commuting back and forth to the hospital and being away from my other kids so much, Maggie has been a really good baby, and we look forward to being home and just being a whole family again. At her one month check up which was just a few days after we left the hospital, she weighed 6 lbs. 12 oz. which was approximately a pound more than she weighed at birth. She measured 20 inches which was 2 inches more than her birth measurement. The pictures from this month mostly tell the story of our too long stay at the hospital, but we did get a happy ending just in time for Valentine's Day.

By five days after birth, Maggie was not on any medical assistance except a feeding tube. She was off of oxygen, in a regular bed with no heater, and was not receiving treatment for jaundice. She was not taking any medications or fluid so she did not have an IV either.

We celebrated with getting all dressed up and taking selfies with Mommy.

At one week old, we started using a bottle for feeding, and she took to it right away although she would work on staying awake to take her full feeding for a while.

They switched the feeding tube to her nose to make her bottle feeding easier. I hated that tape constantly stuck to her little face. She would pull out or sneeze out the tube frequently because she didn't like it. .

Looking almost exactly like big brother Mattox at one week old.

Just modeling some hats and showing off her belly button.

She loved being all wrapped up like a burrito.

Mommy insisted that she needed to wear her pretty clothes already.

Daddy and Mommy fight over whose girl she is.

Grandma finally got to hold her.

Yep, she is so cute!

She and Mommy had some fun with selfies.

She was so wide awake, and her eyes were big and bright. She makes the cutest little bunny, of course.

Our little diva is 2 weeks old.

Kind of giving us a little smile.

3 weeks old, and she surprised Mommy wearing a little bunny outfit that the nurses dressed her in. It was a preemie outfit so she wouldn't need to wear that one very much.

Mommy's pretty little girl. Mommy wanted to get her home so she could take some decent pictures of her.

After a rough weekend where Maggie had some serious bottle feeding issues, Mommy finally got her back to eating well and refused to leave her again. I was determined to handle all of her feedings from that point on to avoid any further confusion and frustration for her so we got her moved to a room where Mommy could stay. Maggie finally got a nurse who was nice enough to make her a sign for her bassinet which we had sadly lacked while in the NICU. Yes, other nurses did this for other babies...just not for ours. I was not impressed by most of our nurses there.

Maggie decided to give this relationship a chance and allow Mommy to spend the night for the first time.

Oh that little baby bum in the air! We were trying sleeping on our tummy to see if it helped her breathing. She tends to snore and breath heavily.

Sweet baby girl.

After getting Maggie to consistently take all her feedings by bottle for over 2 days, our last hurdle to going home late Sunday night just before she was 4 weeks old was to pass the car seat test. She had to sit buckled in her car seat while hooked to her monitors to make sure she didn't have any sleep apnea episodes for 90 minutes. She passed with flying colors!

Yay! She's going home!

It was late at night when we arrived home so the boys didn't see her until the next morning. Mattox and Grayson were so excited as Mattox had been asking, "Where's Maggie?" constantly for weeks.

Giving sweet brother kisses.

Grayson getting to hold her the first time. I love when they ask to hold her by holding out their little arms.

Sweet big brother Mattox is just the most loving big brother.

Brody has been waiting so long to hold his baby sister. He was so happy! He had been planning her welcome home and wanted to read a book to her.

Big brother Evan waited until after school to get to hold her because he leaves so early in the mornings. I know that was a long day for him.

Our first excursion after coming home was a visit to her pediatrician. In two days, she had not lost any weight and still weighed 6 lbs. 12 oz.

Mommy put out some welcome home decorations for her.

Finally home at 4 weeks old so Mommy could take some decent shots of her in her special outfit.

Our beautiful Magnolia.

We finally got to give her a real bath at home. Our babies love this little tub with its special sling for newborns. They get all the support they need and can enjoy the warm water safely and easily.