Baby Reese

 

We were able to get some newborn photos taken of Reese. This is the only one I have back so far, but so grateful to do something normal like this with her.

{Photo by my sister in law: Tasha Price http://www.takenbytasha.com} 

Home

The kids were beyond exited to finally meet Reese and bring her home. They were waiting for us out in the NICU waiting room to get their first peek at her. I could see their nervous excitement and a few tears as they saw us coming towards them. This has been really hard for our other 3 kids. Reese was sort of this person they had heard of but had never met, so it was hard to feel like they had a new baby. They've had to sacrifice their parents for several months and cooperate with lots of people helping us. It was a tough thing for our family, bless these sweet children of mine who have had to go through some pretty tough stuff. We already had her buckled up and the nurse had to walk us out to our car, but we had a quick meeting.

 And first family photo.

 

Having the kids see and touch her was a little nerve-wracking at first. It felt like taking the bubble baby out of the bubble.

 

First car seat ride (besides transport to Primary Children's- this was her first time outside).

 

Such a fun surprise to come home to this.....

 

 It made us feel so happy that others were celebrating this with us. I tell you what....charity never faileth. My wonderful neighbor Kendra did this for us....everyone needs a neighbor like Kendra. Did I ever mention she also cooked my family dinner for a month while I was on bedrest.... And gathered a group of other neighbors to go in on a video baby monitor because I had mentioned that I was looking for one....and has helped with my kids anytime I've asked- and she goes all out for them, taking them to fun places and getting them cool things.  She's so good to our family- along with so many other great family members, friends, ward members and neighbors. The night we got home, some neighbors dropped off bread, my life-long friend Nicole dropped off two big sacks of baby clothes......just so many thoughtful things have been done for us. We are so thankful.

 

 It is truly a blessing to be surrounded by so many wonderful, supportive and caring people. It is overwhelming and humbling to have so many willing to help, pray, fast, clean, serve, etc. to help our family and little Reese. Thank You! Especially to our family who have raised our other kids for the past 6 months. Sincere and eternal gratitude is how we feel.

 Once we got home, the kids finally got to hold her. Reese & Rylee- survivor sisters is what they are.

Jace & Reese- oldest and youngest. Such a good boy this Jace is. He definitely "feels" the trial the most- poor kid practically got ulcers through this whole thing. He will be well-prepared to handle whatever storms life throws at him, but this has been hard on him. He's a little worrier.

 And Jaden (Bubby) and Reese. Finally found something to tame this boy. He is 100% soft and sweet with Reese and I love to see this side of him. He hugs her and just says, "I love you so much Reese."

 

There really is NO PLACE LIKE HOME.

So glad to have all my children here, with us on earth, in our home....together.

Good-Bye NICU

Well....after 115 day in the NICU, we finally got to leave. What a long and hard journey it has been- having a child in the hospital for 4 months is no easy task, especially with 3 other kids at home and, of course, a husband in tax season.  Reese joined the NICU on January 9 weighing 1 lb. 15 oz. and left on May 3 at 8 lbs. even.

 

We started NICU life out with Reese having an infection (caused by my placenta/umbilical cord being full of infection). Antibiotics weren't kicking it, so the Dr. actually started suspecting/testing wondering if it might be leukemia since we had another daughter with it. The rollercoaster and wild ride didn't seem to ever let up. We had a brain bleed, aspiration in the lungs, cut in the upper airway, she's gotten surfactant about 3 times, had about 20 blood transfusions, been on antibiotics on and off several times, had tons of blood work taken, echocardiograms, eye exams, head ultrasounds, xrays, developed ROP, had a laser eye surgery, transported to and from Primary Children's, etc., etc. etc. I.am.so. exhausted....and what a little fighter this Reese is.



Once we got her crib set up, it was just starting to feel like time for Reese to come home. It got hard walking past the empty room each day.

 

Then we got the car seat ready...and Rylee quickly put her baby in there and started taking it with us everywhere in the car. The kids were ready for her to join us too. Funny thing about this doll is that Reese was only about 1/2 inch bigger than this doll at birth. The head size is about the same as hers at birth- crazy!

 

 Then I show up to the NICU one day and they have this giant crib in there for her- with a mobile and everything. They were getting her too comfortable there and it was starting to definitely feel like big baby at the NICU. One morning at rounds, a hospital volunteer came up to me and said, "I just wanted to let you know that I came and snuggled your baby yesterday." What? I was so bugged by that- I just wanted my baby at home to snuggle her myself. It was starting to feel like Reese was in an orphanage or something. She does have a home and a family who loves her.

 

So...first thing on the list was to pass the car seat challenge. She had to sit in her car seat, buckled for 90 minutes without having any desats or brady's. Those two words are part of my vocabulary now, but "desat" means that her oxygen saturation levels don't dip below her set parameters and "bradys" is short for Bradycardia, which means a drop in heart rate. She passed successfully.

 

She had to come home on oxygen, so we had to go to Norco and learn that new world of oxygen pumps and oximeters (monitor to tell you heart rate and respiratory rate).

 

Then we moved Reese over to the transition room, where I stayed the night with her for the first time in 4 months.

 

She snuggled with her daddy for a bit before he went home to the other kids.

 

This lovely monitor beeped the night away. I did not really sleep at all. They had to make sure that our oximeter and the one at the hospital were similar so we had to have both...and they didn't really match up exactly so it was a beeping frenzy. Was glad to get the beep out of there!

 

The next morning, the nurse came in and said we didn't meet the feeding requirement. She was a few mls. short of her full feedings, so she was worried the Dr. might say that we can't quite leave yet. Well..the feeding thing was explainable because she had an eye exam that day and then she was exhausted so she slept through one of the feedings, which through her percentages off. The Dr. left it up to me.....and I said we were ready to leave.

So we packed up all of our stuff. Got discharge papers done. Got Dr. appointments scheduled, services set up, formula ordered, gave Reese a bath and got her dressed.

Said good bye to bay #12- which happened to be our 9th move in NICU life. We started in bay #5, moved to bay #9, transported to Primary Children's room 34, got moved to room ???, transported back to EIRMC bay #5 again, moved to the CCN bay #27, moved back to bay #5, moved to bay #6, then finally to bay #12 where we stayed until we went home.

Said goodbye to all of our nurses who practically became family. Grandma Karleen and Caroline.      It was nice getting to know all of the nurses and I love how much they loved Reese. I will always appreciate the good ones who took such good care of her when I couldn't.

 

After all of our goodbyes...it was time to leave. Time to finally get this baby home!

 

 Sweet Reese...you made it! You survived a very hard battle. You are our tiny miracle.