Birthday Miracle!

Saturday was our Birthday Miracle! It was Mitch's 2nd birthday and we had a busy day ahead of us with visitors coming over to see Alexis, Chloe's Primary Program practice, errands to run for Mitch's birthday, and of course visiting Leah in the hospital.

The latest on Leah, since my last post, was that she was taken off oxygen on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. and did great. Her blood oxygen levels, heart rate and respiratory rate were all great and she has been off oxygen ever since.

Here she is Thursday, the first time I saw her without her oxygen cannula in her nose. The only thing left to get rid of is that darn feeding tube! But she is breathing on her own!!

Alexis was excited for her, too.

After getting off oxygen on Wednesday, the only thing left to do before she could come home was getting her to nipple all her feedings for 24 hours, meaning she had to either be able to nurse her 52 cc's (not quite 2 ounces) or drink them from a bottle. If she couldn't finish her feedings by one of those two ways, or a combo of both, she had to be fed the rest of the meal through her tube, and we had to start back over. She was so tired from all the breathing problems that she was still really tired, but she tried so hard to eat well for us. Each feeding she made improvements and we were hopeful that any day we would get the good news that she could come home.

Saturday afternoon we went in to visit her and waited almost 2 hours to talk to the NICU doctor. It was worth the wait because he told us the best news that we could hear that day: "Are you ready to take your baby home, today??" We definitely were.

Here I am with Leah, feeding her her last bottle in the NICU. She was so excited to come home that she quickly devoured the entire thing in record time.

In her carseat, ready to go home!

Alexis and Leah, wearing their first matching twin outfits (finally)!

Our last family photo at the hospital.

The strong Dad, carrying both carseats. (When I can lift heavy things again, I will need to practice this......)

The big kids were so excited for us to be home with the babies.

And then it was time to celebrate Mitch's birthday. We had to postpone his party a few hours in order to bring Leah home, which was well worth it for our Birthday Miracle, but it was way past Mitch's bedtime and the day had been so busy and crazy that I felt bad for the lack of attention that he received on his special day.

He loved opening his gifts and was so excited for each one!

He is obsessed with the little monkey named Boots on Dora the Explorer, so my mom and I each bought him a few "Boots" things for his birthday and he was so excited. He kept yelling "My Boots, my Boots!"

Here is our Birthday Man with his sad little cake. Due to the busy day and all that has gone on the last 2 weeks, I didn't have time to get any great decorations for his cake, so at the last minute I just slapped on some Boots and Dora frisbees. It was not much to look at, but Mitch loved it- "My Boots!"

Here are the girls, together again at last. I saved their going home outfits for when they could both come home.

Our first family picture outside of the hospital.

Chloe was so excited to have her two little sisters home together. She has been a big help with Alexis already and loves holding both of them.

Here is the sweet little picture Chloe made for Leah's big homecoming. We are all so glad she is home and healthy, and we couldn't have asked for a better birthday present than her! (Although Mitch was probably more excited about Boots than his sister....)

2 new babies

4 day hospital stay for Mom and Alexis

12 day hospital stay for Leah

11 days in the NICU

8 days on oxygen

1 CPAP mask, 1 feeding tube

Too many needle pokes and pricks to count

2 healthy, happy babies

1 happy family, all home together