Saturday, September 15, 2007

TWO YEAR'S AGO TODAY SHE CAME HOME....

Not being able to bring home the girl's together was so hard on us, but once we had both girl's home we realized we had more of a challenge than we ever expected. Not because we were dealing with two babies on our own, feedings that would take four hours to complete sometimes, and reflux but, because Olivia in reality was not ready to be released from the hospital when she was, which was partly my fault. I was just simply sick and tired of hospital life. I wanted both of my kids home and I wanted to start to live as a family. Meaning, I didn't want to deal with doctor's everyday, or nurses watching over me as I shared a quiet moment with my daughter, endless beeping sounds of monitors going off, and sounds of mother's crying because they had just delivered their baby prematurely.

On this day two year's ago I begged the doctor's to let me take Olivia home. The reason she had not been released with Avery was because she was not waking on her own to feed. But at the same time, the NICU nurses weren't giving her a chance to wake up hungry because every three hours they came in and pushed her feed into her stomach through her NG tube. How was she ever to feel hungry on her own? So I promised the doctor's that I would wake her every two hours to feed her. They agreed, and within a few hours we had our discharge papers in hand along with our other baby.

Once she came home I did as I promised, I woke her every two hours for a feed, but all she wanted to do was sleep. Sometimes her feeds would only consist of half an ounce. Which even that was a struggle. Then when you add reflux into the equation it only became harder. That half an ounce that I would have struggled with to get into her, would sometimes come right back out of her. So we would have to start all over again. Not much fun when it's the middle of the night and mommy hasn't had much sleep as it is.

We reflect back on those times a lot and remember wondering if that time would ever change. Well it has changed in some ways, the reflux is gone, but she still continues to be a picky little eater. One thing that hasn't changed is the fact that I would do it all again for her if I had to.

On September 15th 2005, we were finally a REAL family.






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5 comments:

Lexi & Tori said...

What beautiful little girls you have Shannon. They have come a long way.

Shannon said...

I can't believe that they have been home for two years. I think that is because I look back at where Ashton was on this day in 2005 and he was nowhere close to coming home.

I got to the pictures and for some reason it brought tears to my eyes. Olivia and Avery are perfect.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful pictures!

-Vickie

BusyLizzyMom said...

What beautiful pictures of the girls. It's pretty crazy how fast time goes by, that they both have been home for 2 years. I don't know how you did with the two of them when they were so little.
I look back to when Elizabeth came home and I was happy to take her home with all her needs that she had, I just wanted her home with us because I knew that was where she needed to be to get stronger. The same was for Olivia you knew that she just needed to be home and you would take her despite all the hard work you needed to do.
They are amazing girls.

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