At Last....

Our Family is Together!!!

I was really beginning to think it would never happen. But after 64 long days in the NICU our sweet little Kiari has come home! She came home on Saturday, February 5th. Kiari was 2 months and 2 days old. She weighed 7 lbs 9 oz and was 22 inches long. She came home at 39 weeks gestation, so she is right on for her size and weight.

Kiari Graduates from the NICU after 64 days (9 weeks and 1 day)

Kate Welcomes her little sister home

We were finally able to meet with the new neonatologist that came on for the month of February and got him to change the required amount she had to take by mouth. That coupled with a new nurse that noticed that Kiari was having a difficult time swallowing the milk and had developed an aversion to eating. She thickened up the milk, we treated Kiari for reflux and within 48 hours Kiari was HOME!

Riley and Kate, their excitement is evident

Kate telling Kiari Good Morning on her first day home

The first night was "fun" as we tried to get into the swing of things. One nice thing about the NICU is that she is on a regular schedule. So I know that every 2 1/2 - 3 hours she will be eating and already has her sleep patterns set. It was really fun to watch her once we got home. She just looked and looked at everything that was around here in the house.

This about sums up our energy level with a new baby here at home

It still seems like she is just on loan. I have felt for the longest time that I just had visitation with this sweet little baby at the hospital. Now it seems that they have just let me take her home for a little while. But each day it gets a bit better and better. She had her first doctor's appointment yesterday. She is doing great, but looking like she is already needing another blood transfusion. This will be her 8th transfusion. Hopefully she will only need one or two more after this.

Right where she should be.

Speaking of blood transfusions. Blood banks right now are at a 10 year low. These past two months they have really noticed a decline in donors due to the weather. If you are able, please consider donating. I will forever be grateful to the people who have donated and saved the life of my sweet Kiari. It may not seem like a huge thing to the donor, but they truly are my heroes.

she LOVES bath time

Kiari also made it home just in time to celebrate Riley's 11th birthday. Riley was so excited to learn that Kiari was due on the 12th of February because she would finally share a "season" with someone in the family. We really thought we would at least make it in to January, but she is happy with Kiari being in the "winter" as well.

Happy Birthday Riley! I am so lucky to be your mom!

With everything that has happened and been going on, I realize that I have neglected to announce where my husband has accepted a position for work once he finishes his training here in April. My sweet family will be leaving the land of cold winters with perma-gray skies and go to where "The stars at night are big and bright." We are going to TEXAS, Dallas, to be exact. He has accepted a position with a group in the North West Dallas area. Let the search for the new studio begin!

Thank you all again for your love, support, prayers, meditations, thoughts and best wishes. Thursday night we had put out the request for family and friends to join us for a special fast and prayer to help us bring Kiari home and Saturday afternoon we did just that. Thank you to all who participated. It has been quite the journey. Now the journey to pay the bills begin. This baby is a pricey one. We actually just got one statement for the NICU stay (and it isn't for the entire time) but it was over $160,000. YIKES. I am hoping the majority of it, if not all, is covered by my insurance. OUCH. We are still trying to figure out how to pay our portion of the transfusions before she was born. I may be closing down my online shop and trying to sell my stuff through Etsy for a little while as I don't have the money to pay the merchant and hosting fees. So if there is something you would be interested in, please let me know. Otherwise, I will be closing up shop for a while until we can get things paid off. Thank you to those of you that have recently placed orders. Hopefully you now have those in hand and are enjoying them.