We're Breaking Out of Here

Let's Keep This Short

I’m determined to prevent this from becoming another somber, long-winded post, so I’m just going to update you and keep it as short as possible.

We’ve been in the NICU at St. Louis Children’s Hospital for 151 days. We’ve tried, as you probably know, to get out of here two other times. Both discharge dates were cancelled when we discovered that Ayla wasn’t quite ready. If we’re really being honest, Alaina and I weren’t ready either.

This time is different. Alaina and I are ready, and Ayla appears to be ready too. So, on Wednesday, September 4th, we are going to pack up our things and take our little girl home. Well, we’re going home, but we aren’t driving.

Ayla will be transported home in the MICU (Mobile Intensive Care Unit). She failed her first couple of car seat tests. She’s had more practice in her car seat over the past few weeks, but they want to be careful and make sure we get home without incident. So I’ll be riding with her in the back of this:

Earlier this month, Ayla became sick with Rhinovirus and it was really rough on her for a while. The worst day was coincidentally the same day that Alaina had to go back to work. I bagged Ayla 6 times that Monday, and 3 times on Tuesday. From there her episodes tapered off and became less frequent. By the end of the week she was feeling much better.

Ayla has been great since then, for 2 full weeks. She’s been happy and playing and she’s been such a little sweetheart to be with. She’s growing like crazy and she’s full of energy. She kicks and jumps and she’s trying to roll-over. She pulls my glasses off and squeezes my face. We bounce and dance and make faces and she just smiles and even laughs. No, Ayla doesn’t make any sound when she laughs, but that’s ok because you can tell by the way her mouth opens and her tounge moves and her neck stretches back and her cheeks are pushing her eyes up to a squint, that she’s laughing. We wish so badly that we could hear her laugh, but we don’t need to hear it to know she’s happy.

Family Participation Unit

Today we’re spending time in the FPU room with Ayla. This is kind of a formality, really, as we already handle all of her cares, but the hospital recommends it to most NICU families and it will be good for us to experience. We’ll spend the night in a little “hotel room” on the NICU floor of the hospital. We can call a nurse to our room if we need to, but we hope to spend the evening being a family and that Alaina and I can take care of Ayla on our own.

I’m confident that we’ll do just fine.

Ayla Stats

Age: 21.5 Weeks
Weight: 12lb 14oz.
Length: 23”
Facebook/Twitter Status: “I don’t know where ‘the Zoo’ is, but I can’t wait to go there! That’s where Delmar lives.”

(The nurses refer to “going home” as going to “the Zoo” when around Ayla. They say it’s bad luck to tell her we’re going home.)

Pray for Us

Please say a little prayer for all of us. Pray the transition home is easy and happy and exciting. Pray that Ayla adapts well to our home environment and that we can get back to some kind of routine. We have so much to learn about life at home with our special little girl, and while we’re very excited to get there, we’re also nervous about the challenges in Ayla’s future.

Thank you so much for thinking of us and praying for us. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Pictures of Ayla

We Are

Ready.

See you soon!
Corey, Alaina, and Ayla