Friday
First, Happy 4th. Today Brian took Syd to the River to hang out with Lacy and me and Bayley stayed home and hung out. lol Bayley had a tummy ache during the day today. Bless her heart. She is now taking between 45 ml and 60 ml per feeding. Sometimes she wants all of it and sometimes she doesnt. She slept ok last night. She slept a lil better than the night before. Im starting to get my days and nights messed up so I know she has lol. The only thing exciting that happened today is that Bayley finally can keep her paci in her mouth all on her own...well for the most part. Before now she might do it for a few minutes but she usually knocked it out or didnt suck enough to keep it in. Today she finally got the hang of it and she had her paci in for a good part of the day. She loves it. It seemed to settle her down better than anything while her tummy hurt. Sydney hates the type of paci Bayley has because she says it is ugly...we have tried cute ones but she doesnt seem to like them. I dont care what it looks like as long as it helps Bayley it is fine with me. Nothing else exciting... I did get some good bbq thanks to my mom!!! oo and my aunt kaye sent me watermellon. yummmm. More tomorrow.
Today Bayley is ONE MONTH OLD!!! She is quite the big girl these days. I got about 3 hours sleep last night instead of 2. She took 50 ml at all feedings except 1 she took 30 ml and at 10 pm she took 60 ml. She is gonna be a fatty if she keeps that up. She slept about 2 hours today in her bassinett...which hasnt happened until today. She cried a lil more today. Her tummy hurt her some and she sounds a lil stuffy to us. I suctioned her nose to try to make sure it is clear but I am gonna have to watch it close tonight. Hopefully it is nothing but me being paranoid! More tomorrow.
Last night and today went better than expected. Last night was "ok" lol. Bayley slept ok but I didnt get but about 2 hours if u combined all the minutes together lol. Bayley was really restless and didnt sleep solid...so I jumped at her every move. Poor Syd has been stuck on the couch so that I could use her room and lock the cat out because I do not trust that stupid cat!!! We went to the doctor at 8. He didnt have a whole lot to say. The routine stuff. He rechecked a hemoglobin. We are waiting until the next appt to start her shots because she is so tiny and doesnt have much meat on her bones. He did say we will need to do the RSV shots this fall and winter. The only thing that we didnt love was he had a VERY liberal view on premies going out. Me and Brian both had issues with that part of the visit but we have decided to ignore that and go with the NICU's opinion. We will basically keep her in except for the doctors office for ATLEAST 6-8 weeks maybe more depending on how her weight and general health goes. We arent gonna take any chances...we do not want to go back to the NICU. Home was ok today. Brian was home all day and we kinda tag teamed Bayley. I did get a nap ... IT WAS WONDERFUL! I slept from 2-6!!! As you can see...Bayley got her first bath tonight!!! She was so cute! She did really well. We had a few tears but she did WAYYYY better than Syd did with her first bath! lol More tomorrow!!!
Me Lovin on Bayley when we first got to the NICU for the LAST TIME!!!
A good look at Bayley's room for the last week.
Changing Bayley's diaper for the last time in the NICU
Bayley Lauren in her Big Girl Dress that her Granny Pat made. She looked so pretty.
Linda who is one of the Respiratory Therapists doing the last car seat check before we could leave. 
Doesnt she look cute in her big girl car seat.
Sisters ready to go home!!!
Our Family!!!!
Bayley's very first look at the outside world!!!
She wanted to know where her sunglasses are.
Bayley's first day home... 4 weeks and 4 minutes old.
Bayley in her new bed for the 1st time. 
What a fatty... 3 pounds 15.7 ounces 
Bayley's first big girl bottle!!! She did great.
Ok it is pretty obvious....BAYLEY GOT TO COME HOME!!! She is 3 lb 15.7 oz. She is taking 50 ml of milk per feeding. Her head ultrasound was negative and she passed her carseat tolerance test. Dr. DiCarlo met with us and reviewed her entire history. He went over all meds and everything that has happened to her since the consult with Dr. Strange. Tanna was our nurse today. Christy & Amanda were both there today and came to say bye. Those two girls were lifesavers. Tanna educated us on premies....just incase yall wondered...do not ever let you baby chew on electrical cords...NO JOKE...that is on their check list...which means some idiot actually did it. We got to leave the NICU at about 5 til 3. Bayley did really good on the ride home. She likes her bassinett...the whole 5 minutes she has been in it. We have held her ever since we got home and Im thinking it is going to stay that way for a long time!! She took her 1st bottle out of a Dr. Brown's bottle at 6 and she did really good. We are so glad to be home. I talked to John Chitwood before we left. He is the daddy of Clair which is one of my favorite babies. Clair is 8 weeks old and still on CPAP with no real end in sight. She too was a 29 week baby. Clair didnt have a good day today so please keep her in your prayers. Also, Please remember Chandler Ferguson in your prayers. He was born at 25 weeks 1 week and a few days before Bayley. Chandler is at UAB NICU and is struggling. He has had many setbacks and that family is truly struggling. I cant tell you how much our time spent in the NICU has opened my eyes to how much these families go through. We are one of the lucky ones and I am so thankful for that. Please continue to keep our Bayley in your prayers as well. We go to Dr. Latona's Office at 8am Monday. More tomorrow....
Bayley wearing a bib for the first time yawning. lol 
Big girl likes to EAT!!!
Today was pretty good...It started with a bang but that is a different story. Bayley is up to 3 lb 15.2 oz. She had a good bottle day and has had no apnea in 48 hours. She is taking 50 ml at each feeding and is doing it in less than 30 min so she is doing great at that. Today hasnt been a good tummy day for Bayley. It has just been a reminder that although she is doing fantastic and we are so thrilled for that, she is still underdeveloped and has a long way to go. We watched the car seat safety video today. We left our car seat at the hospital and they are going to do a car seat test on Bayley tonight to make sure that she can ride 30 min in the car seat without having apnea. She had her head ultrasound done today and it has to be negative before we can go home but hopefully it will be. Her temperature is always hot so I dont that that will keep us from going home. We have to have some "education" done which Im assuming is on caring for a premie and we have to have a meeting with one of the doctors where they will go over everything that they have had to do to Bayley and her medications that she has been given. It is very exciting to get to bring Bayley home but it is also scarey too. I was nervous bringing Syd home at 7 lb 11 oz and now we are bringing home Bayley at hopefully 4 lb. I keep trying to get a nurse to come live with us. We have been so fortunate to have such great nurses. Some of our favorites have been Christy, Emily, Susie, and Amanda. We have only had one day out of 4 weeks where I just didnt think Bayley got good care...that is awesome if you think about it. Anyway, Just pray that Bayley gets to come home healthy. More tomorrow...
These are from Friday
Ok So I Missed blogging thursday. We are trying to get things somewhat ready for Bayley to come home. Everything is a wreck so i have had to spend less time blogging and more time sorting junk out. On Thursday Bayley gained to 3 lb 11.6 oz. She did a little better on bottles today but still doesnt have it completely yet. Since she is in a crib we basically held her all day! lol It is soooo much better than just having to look at her in her bubble. Nothing really exciting went on other than her weight gain. 
SYDNEY EVEN THOUGHT TODAY WAS A PRETTY GOOD DAY! LOL
THIS WAS THE VERY FIRST TIME SYDNEY GOT TO HOLD BAYLEY.
SISTERS!!! 
SYDNEY GOT SOME BAYLEY LOVE!!!
SYDNEY CHANGING DIAPER FOR THE 1ST TIME!!! IT WAS A NASTY DIRTY ONE TOO!!!
SYDNEY GIVING BAYLEY A BOTTLE FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!
Well as you can see today was a pretty good day. We started it early with Sydneys 8:30 am dentist appt. WOW That is early for us late birds. After the dentist we returned some unneeded maternity clotes. lol Then after lunch we headed to the hospital to see our baby. It is official...BAYLEY IS A FATTY!!! She gained to 3 lb 11 oz. Everyone is so shocked that she has packed the weight on so fast. The nurses all say that she isnt acting like a 29 week baby. It was about 4 before we heard the magic words...CRIB & GOING HOME!!! Yup...you read that right. Our lil fatty got put in a crib late this afternoon and that starts the countdown to home. Our first "Possible" Going home date is SUNDAY!!! She has been getting 30 ml per feeding and they moved her up to 40 ml today... that is a huge jump. Bayley has to drink 40 ml every 4 hours in a 30 minute time frame with no apnea. She also has to mantain her temperature in her crib. There is something else she has to do but I cant remember what in the world it is but I will find out tomorrow. lol She has to do those things for 3 days in a row. If she fails any of it the countdown starts over. Our countdown started at 5pm.. SHE FAILED HER FIRST BOTTLE lol so this may not be quite so simple. lol One of the nurses said that it is usually somewhere in a 7 day time frame around the original target date so I guess you could say we should go home sometime next week as long as we have no major setbacks. Our other big news as you could see was that since Bayley got to get in a crib today that means that Sydney finally gets to hold her!!!! She was so happy. You can see from the pictures that she totally loved her time with Bayley. It was so sweet to watch them get to know each other. Sydney did great with Bayley & she is going to be so much help with her. Bayley is very lucky to have Sydney as her big sister. Keep your fingers crossed and the prayers going up that Bayley will remain healthy & that we can bring her home and she will continue to grow & have a wonderful life!!! 
