Seven Weeks!

Stella is seven and a half weeks old! Every day we fall more in love with our little chunk of lovin. She is over 10 pounds and has continued her impressive progress at home. I've sat down to update the blog a dozen times and never finished (thanks, kids) but we appreciate the requests for updates! It feels good to be in a routine and not feel the need to post daily - a little cruise control never hurt anyone. But thank you for caring, checking in, and continuing to pray for us all! (And for everyone that has brought us food - thank you, thank you, thank you. We are unbelievably blessed).

Stella's heart is stable (or as stable as a 7 week old with half a heart can be). We have had a couple follow up appointments with the cardiologist, including one this week. We spent Tuesday morning at Children's Hospital after almost week of noticing Stella's O2 saturation had been a little lower than normal. Her doctors want her to hover around 80 (ideally between 75-85) and she had dropped to the low 70s and occasional high 60s the past few days. Thankfully, an echo revealed that absolutely nothing is out of the ordinary and we are going to attribute the low sats to fussiness or perhaps a bad sensor on the machine at home.

Stella's heart looks good. There is mild leakage in both her valves - but as long as that remains mild, her doctors are pleased! She gets a gold star for growth (hello thigh rolls) and is super alert. Basically, she rocks.

We still haven't made any progress in bottle feeding - our girl just won't have it. She tolerates the feeding tube and still gets all her milk through the tube which is a blessing, but I'd love to lose the tape on her face and gagging the tube causes her. The other morning she spit up and gagged so hard the tube came flying out of her nose - it was traumatic for both of us. We met with her speech therapist this week and learned some new tricks so fingers crossed she will give the bottle a try.

Connor and Ellie have become superior older siblings. Ellie finally acknowledges Stella (most of the time) and brings her pacis and blankets and wants to mother her as aggressively as I will allow :) Connor pushes the limits of being a big brother - but clearly adores her and I can't wait until the three amigos are running around like triplets.

We are so thankful for very few setbacks and lots of family time at home. Life with these three will never ever be dull, but I can't imagine it any other way!

Some more highlights from the Stacy 3 :)

The first car ride with all three kids - Lizard and I were bored and they were so stir crazy we just drove around and enjoyed leaving the house! And yes, Connor has a black eye. Oopsie. 

Stinker has pulled out her NG tube often this week - but I love her tube free face!

Our sweet neighbor lent us their bounce house to amuse the twins while they are stuck at home. No broken bones yet!

Baby girl has some cheeks! Giving Bubba a run for his money :)