Going home!

You read it correct, dimples wil be comming home tomorrow. It will be a long day for her an an extra long day for me. So I leave you with this...

The first captured real smile!

My lie

I broke my promise of pics today. But keep in mind it was for good reasons. The first being lack of sleep. I took my Mom to the airport today at 5 am. (funny story). The second time I left the house and went to the hospital I was in a huge hurry and the third.... I was working on arranging things for her to come home!!!!!! *IF* we can get a couple of loose ends taken care of we will be in Utah on FRIDAY!!!
Tomorrow will be another busy day. You know arranging for the adoption agency to be at discharge, Ella needs her hearing test and car seat test, and I need to pick my Mom up at the airport. You might wonder "did I read that wrong?" No, you didn't. My poor Mother left Tampa on stand-by to get back to SLC since there was no way we thought they could discharge Ella by our flight on Friday. Well lets just say the stand-by didn't work so well. She made it to Atlanta. And she is still in Atlanta. So in the morning she will be returning to Tampa so that she can use her original ticket to SLC on Friday with me and Ell. Confusing I know. EVERYONE cross your fingers we are able to get ll of the duck in a row to get home on Friday!

Doing FABULOUS!

My sweet little Ella is doing amazing. Yesterday she started drinking the whole bottle and she has never looked back! Today she went from feeding every four hours to being fed "on demand" which means she can eat whenever she wants to. It also means that because she does demand food and takes appropriate amounts they removed her feeding tube (and I don't think it will ever need to be put back!). Barring any change in her status I cannot see ANY reason why she shouldn't be released in a few days. That being said I did just sign a consent for her to get her Hep B vaccine. I went back and forth on whether or not to sign it, but this way she is on a monitor in a hospital and we will now if she really can't tolerate vaccines (she may be allergic to a component) or if we just had a fluke with the last ones. As much as I don't want to extend her stay if she has a reaction at least it will happen at the hospital and not my house.
We do have ICPC clearance which means I can legally move her from Florida to Utah. For those of you who don't know her adoption is not final so I do not have legal custody of her the adoption agency does. I expect her adoption will be final in October.
It is kind of sick how much I love this child. I can litterally just sit and watch her sleep. She is beautiful. She has dimples in each cheek although the one on the right is more pronounced. Her hair is just now starting to hold a small amount of curl. She has 2 or 3 chins and chubby cheeks. Her thighs are also starting to get a little chunk to them. She is very compact and "squatty". Neither of her genetic parents are very tall, and that in combination with her situation means she will likely aways be short. I doubt she'll be as tall as me as an adult. She is currently 4 pounds 9 ounces and 16 1/2 inches tall. She is also starting to get her true pigmentation (I think) she is delicious.
I can't wait to get this child home. I have ALOT of things that need to get done before I go back to work.
And after all that reading I must apologize. I didn't take pics today, but I will tomorrow as she has a tube free face! Also Grandma is going back to UT and she requires daily pics!

FINALLY

My baby fianlly decided she likes the bottle. Get this she took the full required amount not one, not twice, but three times in a row today! The kid does equate Mom=bottle. She screams as soon as she hears my voice now.

7-23-11

Tonight I went in for one of Ellas feedings. It was just a tube feeding though not a nipple feed. I really just went to cuddle my cutie. She is a very mellow baby. She fusses very little and doesn't really cry. Tonight that kid threw-a-fit! She was pissed that I was there holding here and not putting a bottle in her mouth. She opened her mouth and thrashed around, fussed, cryed, and even tried to breast feed on my chest (it didn't work fyi). As much as you never want to see your kids upset that is huge progress for her to be mad about not getting a bottle! Now if she would just drink a decent amount when we do!

My little doll

We got Ella off of the 02 and back to her normal cute lil' self. She looks like a little doll. She is the only girl in the NICU amongst around 15 babies. I am pretty sure she is weighing 4 pounds 7 ounces. Some of the preemie clothes are actually getting a little bit snug in her. She is doing better with the bottle but still hasn't taken a full feeding with it.

More princess pics!

then off to bed!