Everyday lives of the Meabon Household

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Do You Know What Today Is?





Next Thursday, Jared and I will celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary. Four years ago, Harper was just a whisper in our future as we said our I Do's and committed our lives to each other. We've been together for over 7 years and we've grown so much from the youngsters that met each other while working at the Four Seasons in Dallas.

This year, September 23 will take on a whole new meaning. We were told today that we will be taking our sweet girl home on Thursday! Yes, that's right. No more NICU for Harper! What an awesome anniversary gift!





We've had a busy week leading up to today's big news. On Tuesday, Jared and I met with Harper's pediatrician, Dr. McCray. She received a phone call from our neonatologist, Dr. Kenton, making her aware of Harper's condition so she was all up to speed (yet another reason why we love Dr. Kenton). We are so happy to work with her and have heard nothing but great things about her. In fact, she is Dr. K's pediatrician and that of a group of the nurses in the NICU. How's that for reassurance! Dr. McCray will take over where Dr. Kenton leaves off when we leave the NICU next week.




On Wednesday, I had a long talk with Harper's surgeon, Dr. Robertson, about the plan moving forward. Harper will continue to see the surgeons on a regular basis. It's still too early to make a definite decision regarding her surgery or surgeries but there is a chance they might perform her omphalocele repair in stages. If multiple surgeries are required, they would remove the existing dome "scab" of her omphalocele and connect the existing skin with human synthetic skin within the next few months. They would go back later and repair her abdominal wall. Otherwise, they would repair everything at one time. Since Harper's O contents are too large to fit in her body without risk of damage to her liver, we will need to wait until her abdomen has grown. We hope surgery can take place within the next year. Her abdominal muscles aren't connected properly causing her to be behind developmentally so the sooner we can have the surgery, the better. The surgical team is still happy with Harper's O and how it's been handled so far. This is absolutely a credit to Dr. Kenton and his team. We continue to see healthy skin growth and shrinking of the size of her omphalocele.

On Monday Harper was fitted for her prosthetic O cover and we received the final product today. We were able to select the look of the cover, but were a little limited in the selection. With a little help from some of the nurses, we finally selected a zebra print - I know, a little annoying but we had a limited selection. This will be worn with her car seat to protect her O from the car seat straps and provide additional protection in case of an accident.



So from now until Thursday, we'll go through some one on one training with the staff to make sure we are ready for all of Harp's specific needs. We're also trying to make sure we cover all of the details on the home-front, including preparing Rooney and Kitty for the arrival of their little sister - they have no clue what's about to hit them!

And now, I bring you the top 10 reasons we can't wait to be out of the hospital and bring Harper home:

#10 - not having to wear a nametag to see our daughter or provide an identification number to check on her

#9 - not having to park in a parking garage every day (if you know how anal Jared is about our cars, you understand this one)

#8 - getting to have a wireless baby - Harper's been connected to some kind of monitor since day one so we are happy to have a baby that's not on a "wire leash"

#7 - being able to sing to Harper without having an audience...Jared's go to: Christmas songs (year round); Brooke's go to: rap music (I know, inappropriate but when you can't carry a tune, rap is an easy pick)

#6 - not having to pack 17 bags to go to the hospital each day

#5 - having time to take care of our house - yard of the month award, here we come!!!

#4 - spending QT with Rooney and Kitty - they are feeling a little neglected

#3 - finally getting to use all of our cool baby gear we received

#2 - introducing Harper to all of her friends and family (although we might have to do this a little at a time as we on complete germ scare from the medical staff)

And the #1 reason we can't wait to have Harper home...getting to see her, hold her, kiss her, love her whenever we want!!!




Thank you Lord for this AWESOME gift! Counting down the hours until Thursday!








Oh, and we want to wish a very warm Welcome to the World to Mateo Andres Puccio who was born Thursday afternoon. Congratulations to Krisana, Juan and big brother Diego!

13 comments:

Kari said...

Congratulations on your anniversary and because you are taking baby Harper home! God bless you guys!

Kristin said...

Happy early Anniversary! I can't believe it's been 4 years. I still remember our days as supervisors at the FD, working the 3-11p shift with Jared as my manager (I think of him every time I hear a Pharrell song because we freaked out when he came to the hotel and sang "Beautiful" ALL NIGHT), trying our best to please Annabel and Steve Shern, after work at Champs . . . I could go on. :) We couldn't be happier for you guys. Congrats on taking sweet Harper home. What a lucky little girl she is! Oh, and isn't it funny how you have a hard time thinking of songs to sing when she needs a song? Christmas songs were my back-up too because you always know the words! Praying for a good transition for all.

Bonnie said...

Hope you can sense my ear to ear smile... No words for my joy for you!! Wish I were there to lead the "Welcome Home Parade"!!

Martha said...

And the tag on your most precious gift should read, "Happy Anniversary, Brooke and Jared! Love, God"

boo and stacy said...

Beautiful bride, mother and wife! Congrats to 4 years:) What a gift!! GOOSE BUMPS all over!!!! What a great post! Excited for all of you!!!

(ps we are year round Christmas carolers too, which has lead to year round Christmas movies, the girls watched Rudolph the other day). So funny!!

YEAH HARPER!!!!!

nancy c said...

Happy Sept 23!! What a great day for yall!
Thinking of you,
Nancy

Susan Gee said...

It will be a great day of celebration for the anniversary and most of all, Harper's home-coming!!! I am beyond excited for all of you!!

OmomtoJ said...

OMG!!! Brooke, that is awesome! I am so happy for you and I can totally relate to your top 10...this is such a wonderful anniversary gift.
CONGRATS

CaroM said...

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!. I'm so happy for you guys! What a great news! Hopefully the tine will fly until Thursday is here.

Pam said...

Sept. 2010 a month never to forget. What wonderful news and as Bonnie said there are lots of ear to ear smiles around.

Dr. McCray is great and the boys (Ryan and Samuel) pediatrician. :)

Happy Anniversary to a couple that has blessed us all.

Anne Davidson said...

I was so happy to read your post, Brooke! I am thrilled for all 3 of yall. God is so good. Love yall, and will be praying for you as you prepare for sweet baby Harper's homecoming.
Love,
Anne

Meghan and Tom O'Dell said...

YAY! Congratulations! I am so happy for you guys! And I think her O cover is cute- much better than Fiona's haha!

Bill, Katie and Graham Law said...

Hi Brooke! Your mom found my blog and directed me towards yours. It's been wonderful reading through your experience. Your humor about the NICU and situation has helped me as I am still dealing with some bad memories. You are so right on, especially with your top 10. You and I have a lot in common. It gave me the chills at points reading through your posts. We had devised several plans to sneak my brother in to see Graham when he came in from out of town. We had the H1N1 policy to follow last winter. Grandparents couldn't even come in...it was horrible. It was lifted right before he came to visit, so we were lucky. ANYWAY, my baby has a giant O too. They attempted to put it in when he was 9 days old and were unsucessful for a number of reasons. We got to go home on Christmas day though (I smiled when I read you were coming home on your anniversary). We came back a week later...I don't want to scare you, but Graham got an infection which is why I would discourage you from reading my January posts.) Graham had an open wound from his surgery though, your situation is very different. Here's my email khryder4@yahoo.com or you can find me on facebook under Katie Ryder Law. I am a good outlet if you need to vent...I've been there, Girl!!! Oh, and Harper is just beautiful, I can see why the nurses fought over her.