Go Sydney, Go Sydney…  What a way to celebrate 6 weeks of life.  We went to the doctor today and Sydney is cleared to come off of oxygen completely!!  She will be happy to know that mommy will stop the daily baby torture sessions (i.e. putting in the cannulas at night and pulling the tape off of her cheeks in the morning).  I am happy to say that she is growing like a little weed., make that a BIG weed.  She can no longer fit into her newborn clothes, and is even pushing the seems of a few 0-3 month clothing.  Her little cheeks are filling out and she is starting to really watch the world around her.

In addition to this good news, our next door neighbor just had her baby boy this weekend.  Sydney and Anthony both have playmates next door, Olivia and Ethan, who are both 6 weeks younger than our kids.  Don’t ask how we managed that, what an odd coincidence.  We are just excited that the kids all have someone their age to play with.

 Thanks to everyone for all of your prayers for Sydney’s health.  She is doing great and surrounded by people who love her!

 Proud Mama

The news we have all been waiting for….. we made a trip to the Cardiologist today, and I am THRILLED to say that Sydney’s heart looks GREAT!  The hole between the lower chambers and the leaky valve are completely healed!  Hallelujah!  She still has a pinhole in the upper chambers, however that is normal for all infants and will dissappear with weeks to a few months.  Her pulmonary hypertension is also completely gone.  She is cleared to come off of the oxygen during the day, however due to shallow breathing while sleeping, she will still be on O2 at night for a while.  So, we are wireless for the most part!  =0)  We will follow up with the pediatrician soon to see when she can be totally tube-free! 

Overall, Sydney is doing fantastic.  As of this morning, she is now 9.6lbs!  Needless to say, she is “thriving”.  Her muscle tone is good, she focuses well and she is picking up her head to look around. 

Thank you ALL for your prayers!  God has truly blessed us with a beautiful baby girl and wonderful friends and family!

Well, life at home is settling down.  My mom left on Monday.  We were sad to see her go.  We wouldn’t have been able to make it through 2 weeks of NICU and living in/out of the hospital without her.  Zachary and Anthony were excited to have Sydney come home and finally get to meet her face to face.  Since then, Zachary’s summer visit is over and he has returned to his mother’s house.  Anthony has enjoyed holding Sydney, helping feed her and today he was able to help give her a bath.

Sydney went to her first Pediatritcian appointment and she now weighs 8 pounds and is all around a healthy baby.  We are still waiting for the Cardiologist appointment on the 15th to see if she can stop the O2.  She is getting into a good eating and sleeping routine.  She generally sleeps for about 3-4 hours at a time, which is a big relief since Anthony rarely slept more than 2 hours!

 Over the last few days we have had some visitors.  It’s been great to see friends and family.  We have also ventured out many times.  Sydney is starting to get a feel for the crazy life we lead.  She went up to the church today for the first time as we went to our Women’s group and the ladies spoiled her for the first of many times.  Keep checking in for more pictures.

Sorry I have not updated in the last couple of days.  Sydney is home!  Monday afternoon (14.5 days from birth) we took Sydney home. She is still on oxygen and will remain that way until we see the cardiologist on the 15th.  She is currenlty diagnosised with Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension you can read more about that here:(http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/medical/heart/pphn.html)

So we are home, able to sleep in our own bed and rather than waiting for the phone to ring to let us know Sydney is hungry we can hear her first hand. Sydney’s oxygen is both portable tanks (small and med) and what we affectionally call the “Darth Vader” machine which takes room air in (21% oxygen) removes the nitrogen leaving mostly oxygen (96%) which is feed to Sydney.

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers

Proud Papa