Tuesday, October 25, 2011

First week at home


Aleli has been home with us for over a week now, and things are going very well. The first few days we were very nervous, as I'm sure most new parents are. Even when we had the time to sleep, it was difficult to sleep because we were concerned about Aleli. However, we have been able to relax a bit more over the past few days, and now we are just really enjoying having our family at home. 

Aleli still struggles a bit with eating, but she is getting better. She has to really focus to swallow, and so when she burps it is really confusing (the food is coming up now?!? What??!?) For about 5 days, every time we fed her she would stop breathing at least once, and we would have to wait, pat her back, and help her catch her breath. But thankfully, that is happening less and less now. Those moments can be very scary for us, as we slowly watch her color fade and her eyes get bigger, even though we know she will catch her breath eventually. 

She saw her pediatrician last Wednesday, and her doctor was very impressed with her progress. She thought that Aleli looked very healthy and she said repeatedly that we were very blessed to have such a healthy preemie baby. Today, Aleli passed her second eye exam and she doesn't have to return for one year! Tomorrow a nurse will visit our house to make sure everything is going well. Hopefully, after a few more days the doctor's visits and appointments will settle down. 

I have been taking some time off of my internship, and Kellye is scheduled to return to teaching the second week of December. Today we took our first walk outside as a new family - myself, Kellye, Darsi and Aleli in her stroller. It was a bit surreal, but really beautiful too. 

I'm really trying to soak in these moments and not rush through them. It's easy to feel pressure to "get back to work" or "back to normal life." But then I remember that Aleli will never again be this small. We'll never have these days together again. And so I should just cherish and value the time that we can share together. 

A few pics from this week:



1 comment:

nic said...

wow. She looks great! I'm so happy that things are progressing and you guys are enjoying these first weeks of being home together as a family! <3,
n