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!