Home has been wonderful. We have been able to get into a routine and the dogs have adjusted wonderfully.

Athena's hernia surgery was successful! She, as preemies are, was sensitive to the anesthesia and did quit breathing for a moment in the beginning, but they just 'jostled' her to 'remind' her to continue breathing. We were in the hospital for 24 hours (a little over) for observation afterwards to make sure that didn't happen again, and it did not. We have now stayed on the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 12th floor at U of M Mott Children's! Her surgery was on the 4th floor. We are getting to know that building really well.

Athena passed her final eye exam- her eyes are developing as they should. Yay! She will have annual eye exams to make sure she doesn't need glasses and if she does that we get them ASAP, but other than that we no longer have to put her through the torture of those eye exams. (they used a very old looking metal contraption to hold her eyes wide open, and she screamed like it was torture)

She still isn't eating entirely on her own. She takes just over an ounce a feeding but then tires out, loses interest, or... we aren't entirely sure. We have a visiting PT and OT coming by today through Early On. We finally got a visit with a Speech Pathologist for a swallow evaluation on Thursday. The Speech Pathologist will not just evaluate her swallowing, but her oral skills as a whole, and will be able to diagnosis or refer us to a gastrointestinologist, nutritionist (not happy with U of M's so we are speaking with someone from Hurley rather), a feeding psychologist, or another specialist. Athena keeps pulling her feeding tube out and it's awful to have to keep putting it in as it is rather uncomfortable for her, so the sooner we get her eating 100% on her own- the better. She should be taking 15-18 ounces a day on her own, and right now she takes between 7 and 10 ounces orally with the rest tubed.

And Athena's weight, as of last Friday, was up to 6 lbs 7 oz! She was full term on Saturday, August 3rd (we brought her home from her surgery that date- so it turns out we did bring a baby home from the hospital on her due date!). She has weight checks twice a week, once at her doctor's and then we also have a visiting nurse weekly who comes and weighs.

Also, if you were curious what is costs to have your baby in the NICU at U of M Mott Children's, a screen shot of a portion of the bill is attached.