6 Months at Home!!

   As of 1pm today Emma has been home from the NICU for 6 months!! That makes 183 days at home after 323 days in the hospital since she was born. So guess what that calls for..? Another photo shoot, of course! Plus when my mom and brother visited last week, she brought some Halloween hand-me-down shirts from my nieces (size 9 months- I had to roll the sleeves up) so that gave her something new and festive to wear for the pictures.

   I definitely had the portable fan blowing in her direction the whole time since she gets hot even when she's only wearing a diaper! She seemed pretty comfortable, but started crying when we were done and she was just laying in all the clothes. Once I took her clothes off she began laughing and kicking her legs, then fell asleep a few minutes later. On Saturday, when it was 70 degrees, Michael put her and the ventilator and everything in the stroller and they walked four loops around the neighborhood. Even then he had the little fan blowing on her. I really wished I could have joined them for that, but I was working that day too.
   When looking through previous blog posts, I was surprised to see that I never posted her NICU Graduation pictures from April 30th. I didn't post much at all the first two months she was home, which is fine, because it was much more important to get the hang of her living at home and getting in the parenting groove, and taking naps during the day since I had to get up every few hours in the middle of the night to give her various medicines as she was still weaning off of those until the end of May.
   I'll post them now:

 *Baaaah ba ba ba baaaa baaaah, baaah ba ba baa baaaaahhh!* (Graduation music) I got a video of me humming the song with her wearing the cap and gown- and notice the tiny diploma! It should actually be Michael and I who get diplomas with all the medical "schooling" we got since June 2017! Haha.

 Two of Emma's primary nurses, Billie and Lori, holding her graduation sign that a lot of the staff signed with best wishes and favorite memories. I was surprised and honored how many people showed up on their day off to say farewell to Emma.

 Nurse Julie who sent us many updates and photos throughout the day when she was working. She knew how to calm Emma down with hair twirling.

 Another wardrobe change and photo with Nurse Kim, another primary! The party consisted of eating cupcakes, signing a lot of discharge papers, and talking to pharmacy and nutrition about her medicine doses and how to much formula to mix with the purified water and protein powder.

 The paramedic arrived at Noon, which I was thrilled about because I heard most babies don't leave until about 4pm. But they knew we were super eager to get her home. As we walking through the other NICU pods/ areas to get to the elevators, I remember making eye contact with another mom who was doing something with her baby. She looked disheartened that we got to leave and she didn't. I wondered how long her baby had been there. But I remember rolling my eyes and sighing whenever I would be in the elevator with someone who gasped and said (while talking to someone else) that their family member's baby had been in the NICU for 9 days, or "three whole weeks", as if that was a long time. Still I know we did not make the record (thank goodness!) which was about 18 months. So to that family, ten and a half months for us is lucky. Although it's over now and didn't seem that bad looking back, it was a long, hard time when we were in it!!

 SHE'S HERE!!!!! I left a few minutes before the ambulance so I could put our dog Sasha out on the porch and start getting stuff out of the car (medical equipment, etc and all of the wonderful gifts). I told Michael that I wanted him to ride in the ambulance with her since I got to ride with her the whole way back from Michigan. (I'm definitely going to be posting more about Michigan this weekend.)

  It's funny how I always remember saying, "She's getting so big" and now looking at these pictures and being used to seeing her now, she looks so small before! And we keep saying that she keeps getting cuter and cuter. I can't believe it. I love to see her grow and get stronger every day. She slept a lot when we got home that day and it was pretty hectic for all of us at first. We had a lot of people in the house and I was trying to get things organized while Michael basically entertained. The paramedic, Gary the respiratory therapist, Karla and Barb from the transport team, and a woman who works with the medical supply company was there. And after they left then three people from the home nursing company arrived. I felt like I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off for several hours. Oh my goodness! What a day! But such a great new beginning! :)

We Are Grounders (Baby Edition)

   Michael and I started watching a post-apocalyptic show called The 100 a few years ago when he found the first season on Netflix. We are both into the "many years after Earth gets destroyed" kind of genre, not necessarily zombie related. The Walking Dead gave me nightmares so I stopped watching that a while ago! There are five seasons of The 100 out now and we just finished all of it so far, since Michael got the most recent season on DVD for his birthday. They start filming Season 6 next year. Anyway, a few years ago Michael took pictures of me in the woods dressed up as one of the characters in the Grounder/ Tree Crew category.
   And a year later for our Halloween party in 2016 Michael and I both dressed as Grounders. At the party Michael and I had known that I was pregnant again for a few days, but we hadn't told anyone yet. I wanted to so badly, but didn't announce it until a week or so later. But I liked the pictures that our friend Peter took of Michael and I in the kitchen. And two years later, I present Emmykru!!

  I just used some of my black eyeshadow for her face paint. She was laughing a lot while I put it on. To understand what she's supposed to be holding you'll just have to watch the episode called "The Dark Year" in Season 5. ;) And here are our pictures from Halloween 2016 in case you didn't click on the link above~

   We're not really doing anything for Halloween this year. I'll be working all day on Wednesday and I like that they let us dress up there, but they stopped having competitions because not enough people participate anymore. When I worked there in 2012 I won a $10 gift card for Best Makeup (done by Michael of course). I'm going to be a ghost this week so Michael will do my make up for work. I did have a plan to do a Mommy/daughter ghost photo shoot during my last weekend off, but ended up not feeling the best and canceled it. So maybe we'll both we ghosts again next year! The dress I got her will definitely still fit her then as I got in a big size so it would be long and flowy on her. Not throwing any parties this year through since we are weary of too many people being around Emma at once.
   A couple weeks ago I took Canon photos of Emma surrounded by Halloween decorations and posted those before decorating the house, but I also got my favorite pictures on my phone so I'll share those with you now. The first one is my ultimate favorite Halloween photo of her probably because she is smiling so big!) although she did a fantastic job playing dress up and her sitting up/ balancing skills have definitely shown improvement since the beginning of the month!

   Today she was only leaning slightly for a short time and then was able to counter balance herself so she stayed upright. The physical therapy she has been getting once a week for 30 minutes (plus our own practice sitting up and balancing with her) has definitely helped since the end of August!! Now we just need Speech so she can learn to swallow because she is constantly drooling which is difficult to do these photo shoots because before each photo I have to wipe or suction her mouth again. First world problems for sure, but still important. :)

October Visitors

   This post will be half fun information and half photo dump! Like I said in the last post, one great thing about having this blog is to store all my photos. And I get so many good ones each week! First a few pretty pictures from September 26th, modeling her unicorn and lace "shoes" that she got from Grammy for her birthday:

   Michael's mom and younger brother, Parker, visited at the very beginning of the month to celebrate Michael's 30th birthday a little bit early. Michael spent a lot of one day working on a new project related to Emma's medical equipment while I watched the first three episodes of Rookie Blue with Parker. We attempted to go to Olive Garden one night, and even gave Emma her treatment early (around 5pm) so she would be happy and feeling good at the restaurant, but once we got her in the car she was having a lot of tummy issues and was crying out loud and requiring a full liter of oxygen for about 5 minutes which is not normal for her. So we turned back and shortly after we got back home Michael's mom and brother got the meals to-go!

  Michael's birthday is October 12th -- and this year he turned 30!! -- but since I was working that weekend we had a really nice Olive Garden date (his current favorite place to eat from) when I got home, eating dinner together in our dining room while Emma slept in the living room. It was a really good conversation and then he opened his presents from me. He opened presents from his parents while his mom and brother were visiting. The main thing he really wanted and was excited to get was a Silhouette Cameo 3 vinyl cutting machine. He was also really happy to get some Forsners bits from Lowes and Season five of The 100, which we started watching together this weekend.

   Two days later, my cousin Jessica and Aunt Paula were in Orlando for a fun Disney and Universal weekend and had a couple hours to stop by. This was Jessica's first time seeing our house and both of their first time meeting Emma! She was sleeping when they arrived - they got to our house right as I got home from work, but they both wanted to hold her, which is super understandable. I knew that even though we'd move her from her swing to their arms, she would stay asleep - and she did for a while. :)

 Jessica has a handful of her own kids and this was her very first vacation without them! Aunt Paula also gave Emma a Glowworm, which she has enjoyed having at night, watching the face light up and play music to her before bed. A few days later, after Jessica flew back home, my mom and Aunt Paula stopped by again for a couple hours. The picture below looks like Emma is Kung Fu Fighting!! She loves playing with her suction catheter.

   Yesterday my friend Tonia drove up from Tampa. We don't talk very often, but I love how we have kept in contact and remained good friends, especially since we have known each other since 7th grade! She texted me last month asking when I would be available so she could visit. She was very understanding when I told her that we wanted to make sure that she wasn't sick (she has a 2 year old daughter, Ashlyn, in daycare). Tonia even brought us a bag of Ashlyn's clothes and I was able to keep a good amount of them. Tonia also visited me and Emma last October when she was still in the NICU.

  She was a little crabby in this white princess onezie. It was kind of tight on her for being a 6 month outfit, but I guess every company has their sizes in different sizes (if that makes sense). Michael even said it ripped when he took it off her later and I didn't even button it right behind her neck. It originally had long sleeves but I sometimes cut the long sleeves off because of how warm she gets, even inside with the fan on! At least I was able to get a few cute pictures of her wearing it.
   Lastly one of the many "sooo good" pictures she gave me on October 11th ~