Molly Is Home!!!

Molly got her walking papers today and is home safe and sound! It's hard to believe that she was born less than a week ago -- it seems like she's been in the NICU for MUCH longer than that. It's scary to think that Max's stay was almost ten times as long -- at least we managed to shave nine weeks off the NICU visit this time around.

The doctors told us yesterday that Molly would probably be able to come home today, as long as her bilirubin levels were ok and as long as she continued to take all her feeds. She was an eating superstar last night and easily surpassed the minimum amount of milk that the doctors wanted her to eat. They tested her bilirubin levels this morning -- they were up a bit from yesterday, but not so much that they wanted to extend her stay. Molly has an appointment with her pediatrician tomorrow and they'll retest the levels then -- as long as they're the same or lower, she's all set. If they're higher than she might need to do some additional phototherapy (probably in the form of a bilirubin blanket that she could use at home). She passed her car seat test and her hearing test, so the doctors declared that she was ready to go home.

We worked with the lactation consultants before we left. Molly did a great job at nursing and the consultant thinks that she should be able to exclusively breastfeed within a month. Wouldn't that be great! We'll just keep working at it. She's decided that she likes to eat every four hours. Max ate every three hours for ages, so this will be a nice little break if she keeps it up.

Molly is fast asleep in her Pack and Play and Max keeps peering over the edge and saying "Baby!" He did get a little upset when I got her bottle ready -- HE wanted the bottle and was pretty annoyed when I wouldn't give it to him. I didn't foresee that problem -- I suppose we should have worked a little harder to get him off of his bottles before the baby came. Big brother and sister are thrilled to have Molly home as well -- we have to remind them that she's not quite up to as much attention and stimulation as Max can handle.

It is wonderful to be at home with all my babies. From now on, the blog content will return to boring baby anecdotes by a doting mom (although I'm sure you'll all miss the weekly updates on my cervix :P). Our heartfelt appreciation goes out to all the wonderful doctors, nurses, and staff at the NICU. It was great to see so many familiar faces and it gave us peace of mind to know that our baby would receive the absolute best care. Thanks again to everyone for all the encouragement and the support -- I'm so glad my pregnancy saga had a very happy ending after all.