There's No Place Like Home

Words are not enough. In the past 30 or so hours Peter and I have experienced almost every emotion. No joke. Sad to say goodbye to our "Fab 4" and other NICU friends. Glad to be home together as a family. Anxious to see what the future holds, especially developmentally, for Brinley. Exhaustion. Sheer physical and emotional exhaustion. Let me start with some pictures and maybe more words will come.

Brinley is doing awesome at home. She loves all of the attention and new things to look at. She probably also appreciates not hearing every NICU alarm going off day and night. She did, however, cry for nurse M today. Our first pediatrician visit was today and Brin is already gaining weight. Off to a good start. 

The girls adore Brinley. Perhaps too much ;) "Can I hold her?", "No, I asked first.", interjected with Alessa's "Hold it!" They do not like all of the time and attention that Brinley requires from Peter and I though. They want a drink and they want it now. They "need" vitamins. Now. Things like that. This 24/7 juggling is already exhausting. I think I cried about 30 times today. Peter even shed a few. I know that things will work out in the long run. God is faithful. But, it is hard right now and I am not going to minimize the struggle. This juggling was compounded by issues with Brinley's ventilator. It took pretty much the whole day today to trouble shoot the problem. We had both respiratory therapists from our supply company over today. They were on the phone with the vent company, blah, blah, blah. We are currently on an entirely different circuit system that passively monitors her volume and respiratory rate. This means that it is not trying to pick up each of her breaths or giving her breaths while she is trying to exhale and such. It seems to be working well now and the vent monitor has actually made it into the screen saver mode. Last night it was alarming so much the screen stayed bright, so I taped a diaper over the display....Anyhow, now I am rambling. Suffice to say it's bedtime and we are praying for peace, safety and deep sleep! Brinley has not had a single desat that requires oxygen. This is very rare for her, but we have been doing more proactive suctioning in her mouth. 

In other news, Cailyn and Raina had their ballet recital tonight. I was able to take them as Peter and his dad stayed home with the two littles. The girls did a great job and were so beautiful in their costumes. (This picture is from their dress rehearsal.)

We want to send a shout-out to my baby brother Sam and his fiance, Olivia as they get married tomorrow. We are very disappointed that we can not be there to celebrate with them but try to have fun without us!

Prayer points- We need help. Lots of help. Food. Cleaning. Yardwork (I am pretty sure we live in a jungle now, though our neighbor has very graciously mowed our yard several times.). Most of all, I need people to be at the house with me at least while Peter is at work. I honestly don't have the energy to figure out everyone's schedules with work, vacations and everything. I don't know how to hand that to someone else either because Brinley's doctor appointments kind of throw timing off sometimes. Anyhow, please pray that we can figure that out because I seriously can't do all 4 kids alone. We are going to qualify for Medicaid for Brinley, which will cover home nursing. I do not know how long the paperwork will take though. Once we get her Medicaid number we can start trying to find home nurses. This could also take a while. Please pray for favor and just the right people to come care for our girl and be in our home.

Thank you all SO VERY MUCH for everything. Every meal, card, gift, finances, cleaning, childcare. We could not do this on our own. May God richly bless each and every one of you. Hang in there with us! We need you.