1 Year Home-iversary

On Tuesday, April 30th, we celebrated Emma being home from the Winnie Palmer NICU in Orlando for a full year! And by "celebrated" I mean we acknowledged it, bragged about how great she'd been doing, and had a photo shoot in the living room! I got these letter balloons while I was pregnant, and planned to use then when Emma was a couple weeks old and home from the hospital like any other normal, healthy baby. But of course that never happened and even at 11 months, she didn't seem like a baby anymore. I would have brought them to the NICU, but they had a "no balloon" policy in place. Anyway, I figured I would dust them off and use them for this occasion. However, before sending and posting the photos, I made sure to let my family and friends know that this is definitely not a pregnancy announcement. We have our one baby and our dog, and that's all we need! :)

Emma says, "Oh! Has it been a year already? Woohoo!!"

   And a special appearance by older brother, Shrimp. ^^
The wood burned frame was made by my best friend, Mia, and given to me for the baby shower.

 Emma was throwing around peace signs for a couple days. Peace and love!!

"Shove off, bunny. These are my pictures!"

   With Emma's arms getting a little bit longer, she is able to start pulling her bows out. This was her letting me know that I had taken enough pictures, haha. She did so well sitting up! As of a couple weeks ago her balancing record is 7 1/2 minutes. Great job ~ check out those abs. 

   This morning (May 14th) we went to Pulmonology for a check up and Emma currently weighs 16 pounds, 10 ounces and is 24 inches long. The doctor turned her Pressure Control on the ventilator settings down to 14. She says ten is usually the lowest they set it at (her Breath Rate is already at ten!) so hopefully by August or September we can try sprinting her. That is when they see how she does with the ventilator disconnected. I'm not holding her to any specific dates (like how I was so eager to get her home from the NICU after her due date and then let down so many times), but we are definitely moving in the right direction with everything!

  Also we started having family dinners together, with Emma sitting in her high chair next to us. Since she passed her swallow study last month, we have been giving her tiny amounts of applesauce on a spoon and she ate a lot of it (about seven little scoops) for us, compared to turning her head away and crying during Speech Therapy. So proud!! 

   Happy 1 Year at home, Emmylou! So glad to have you here, striving and surviving like a baby boss, far past many doctors' expectations. We knew you could do it, and it has been so nice getting to come straight home from work each day, instead of making a detour to the hospital first. Those days are still all too clear in my mind. Here's to the next 96 years of great Meier-Gorlin health! :)