Ella's home!

After a long journey at St. John's NICU, Ella Marie Jerry is finally home! We couldn't be happier.

First, let's recap the past 3 1/2 months:

- Ella spent 112 days in the NICU.

- Ella more than quadrupled her weight and grew almost 7 inches in length (now 8 lbs, 10 oz and 20 1/2 inches long)

- Mom and Dad made over 112 trips to the hospital (and although we were often exhausted, it was worth every minute)

- Mom and Dad will never miss the St. John's cafeteria again (even though on week 1 Dad was quoted saying, "this cafeteria food is so good, I might bring my co-workers here for lunch!" Needless to say, this is no longer a desire of his.)


So here we are. Today was long and eventful. We started off by having the hospital photographer take Ella's photos. They turned out absolutely amazing!

We also had our car seat fitting for Ella where the physical therapist properly sized the straps to fit her and ensured our car seat bases were properly installed in our vehicles. (Good thing too because apparently we didn't do it correctly).

Then came the waiting game. We sat around for a few hours waiting on the doctor to make his rounds to see her. There were 7 babies being discharged from the NICU today and ours was the most unexpected since Ella was such a superstar with her feedings over the weekend, but unfortunately this put us at the bottom of the list. We really weren't sure if the doctor would give the green light or not. We thought he would have liked to see more weight gain, so we had to try our best to keep anxiety levels low. Around 3pm, the doctor visited and indicated he was comfortable with us going home. It was an emotional time, although Tim and I both withheld any tears (which is pretty impressive for me these days). So many of the other doctors, nurses and therapists stopped in throughout the day to say hello/goodbye. It made me realize what great friendships I had made during our stay. It really was a happy, yet sad moment.

Before we headed out, we filled a few prescriptions, and Ella got another dose of the RSV immunization and a GI virus immunization. The shot did not please her (good way to make Mom and Dad look like the heroes on the way out the door.)

We finally arrived home around 5pm (Tim drove in the "slow lane" on Hwy 270). We've settled in nicely and Ella is sound asleep. Of course, the cats were curious as to what this strange new thing was that made noise, so they sniffed around her car seat and are now sleeping with one eye open.

For the short term, it's best that we keep visiting rules similar to that of the NICU - a few people at a time for a short visit, wash your hands, no cold symptoms, etc. Ella's immunity is still more susceptible than a full term baby. Just let us know when you are interested and we'll work with you to find a good visiting time.

We will continue to periodically post on the blog, although it will be less frequent as we'll have our hands full at home.

We want to say, THANK YOU, to all of her faithful followers. We appreciate your support!!


Here are a couple of cute picture of her in the car seat.