The Liner Family

We celebrated our 4th of July by bringing home our baby girl from the NICU! It was a wonderful feeling leaving that place with her in my arms. She is doing really well at home. Last night was our first night and she woke me up by sucking on her hands and do I would fix her bottle and she would eat and go right back to sleep. She did that twice before we all got up at 7. She didn’t cry once. If that is an indication of her normal sleep habits that isn’t too bad!! She is eating better too. She isn’t taking a complete bottle that we fixed but drinking alot and we didn’t have to try to wake up her to eat for once. Elijah is doing really well with her. He doesn’t seem to jealous but he does want our attention alot more. His only problem is not really playing independently by himself. He just doesn’t like to play alone. It wont be too long before he will get a playmate out of Julia!

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who has prayed for Julia’s health during her NICU stage. The Lord has definetly comforted us while we have had her in there. Leaving her at the hospital was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do and then seeing all the other parents taking there babies home was really tough. I got to hold her for the first time yesterday and it was just the best feeling in the world. She is off her oxygen, feeding, tubes, and IVs now. All she has on her is her vital stickers on her chest. She is taking her bottles really well it just takes her a little longer to take it all. The Dr. said that if all goes well today we can do our room in night tommorow (they make all NICU parents have a night with the baby before taking them home) and then on Friday we can have her home!!! I am so ready for her to be here. She has a new brother and a dog that are anxious to have her here too. Thanks to everyone again who has been thinking of us this week.

Sara wants to blog about the details later, but I wante to go ahead and say that pictures are uploaded of Julia!  Check them out here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cwliner/sets/72157605738877970/

So after my appointment Friday I was just sure this baby would have been here by now. I guess I just got the impression from my Dr. that is was going to happen pretty soon. I’m aware of everything my body does right now!! I had a dream last night my water broke and so I jumped out of bed and checked myself and nothing was going on. I’m glad she is still in there growing, but at the same time since my appointment I just thought that she would be here now! With Elijah being gone to Florida with his Grandparents this house is so quiet and I am bored to tears. I should enjoy the rest and relaxation I guess.
We got to talk to Elijah via internet video so we got to see him and he got to see us. He was talking up a storm about what he had been doing and then he held his arms out for us to hold him :O( That was tough.

So I went for my check up yesterday and the Dr. says I am dialted to 4cm now and basically this baby is coming any day now. I’m 35 weeks which is still considered preterm, but the good news is that at 35 weeks babies are developed fully they are just gaining weight now. Sometimes if born this early they may need oxygen or worse case ventilators, but we are hoping she will not need all that. They did the ultrasound on me and they think that she weighs 4lbs 12 ounces. If I do go into labor soon she will be so small and will probably come very quickly. I’m just sitting on pins and needles just watching and waiting for any sign of labor. I have no nails left!

The good news is we finally have her nursery done!! Thanks to my Mom and Cameron! We’ve posted some pictures of it so check it out!!

So I’m not afraid to write that my husband is..well..a geek. He knows it, and it’s OK. I love it and he doesn’t care he is one, so it’s all cool. I admit I’m sort of geekish too so we wondered how all this geekiness would affect Elijah. Would he go into the Geek World with us? Well, I believe that we know now he is going geek. Last night he wanted to watch a movie and so he was looking in our big case of DVDs. The first 10 pages of movies we have are all Disney which he usually watches then after that is all of our movies. So he is looking and he brings a movie over to me to watch and I assume it’s either a Disney or possibly a Shrek movie, but no! It was…STAR WARS!!! Of all the MANY Dvds of cartoons and all the movies that would normally catch a 2 year olds eye he chooses Star Wars! What a proud moment. hahahahahahahaha

Well, week one of bed rest if officially over. YAY! I made it through the first week. One more week and I am hoping the Dr will tell me I can do a little more than just lay here. The first couple days weren’t so bad. I actually enjoyed the rest. My Dr. let me go to my baby shower that my friends had planned for me as long as I sat the whole time so I spent the next day enjoying re-opening the bags and looking at everything. My Mom graciously washed probably 8 loads of baby clothes that I had yet to do. I also caught up on some nap time and reading up on my celebrity gossip mags. Can’t be on bedrest and not read some celebrity trash!! After all that the boredom really started to set in. I was getting antsy. And how is it that you get up and shower then sit on the couch ALL day and then feel completley nasty at the end of the day. Also, how can you sit ALL day and feel so sore?? Weird. Finally on Friday some television entertainment came on. Tess and I were watching Family Feud and the question was “What is the biggest state in the US?” There were 5 choices..the family had 1 answer left and the girl says “Atlanta”. WHAT?! ATLANTA?! Seriously. That was a good five minutes of cracking up. Then that night The Soup came on which is a hilarious recap of the week in TV. I thought I had watched it all, but evidently not. They showed a clip of a new game show called Your House or Mine. It’s where a family of 4 competes for prizes of things that you put in your house. The question was to the son who was about 13. It was “What fast food slogan is “Think outside the bun”? The boy says “Burger King”. Then he realizes that was the wrong answer and tries to make it work by saying “I mean NOT Burger King”. HAHAHAHAHA You can’t take an answer back on a game show! Then at the end of the show the family has lost and the you know when the game show host tries to console the family the son goes and hugs the host and will not let go of him! He is just sobbing in the host’s arms and then to top that off it that wasn’t already embarrasing the Dad starts pointing at him and mouths into the camera “He’s crying”. How awful!!! I havn’t laughed that hard in a long time. Thank God for game shows with dumb people!!!!

Friday, I was sitting in the lab at work when my boss comes running through.  He flew right past me, and I was thinking… “Wonder what’s wrong?”  He came rushing back by when he saw me and said “Your wife is in the hospital.  She didn’t sound too distressed though.”

I rushed out the door and called Sara.  She explained that she had gone for her normal check-up, and had been sent to labor and delivery. The doctor was afraid she would go into pre-term labor.  A quick drive up to Murfreesboro, a few tests, and a baby monitor later and she was told to go home and rest.  Bed Rest.

We kind of saw this coming since Sara was on bedrest when she was pregnant with Elijah, but we had hoped she wouldn’t have to go through that again.  She is allowed to go from the bed to the couch and play with Elijah only if she sits in the floor.  Bedrest is a bit harder this time because there is a two year old running around the house, but we have family that is helping out.  WHEW!

Thanks to everyone who has called to see how Sara is doing.  We thank you for your prayers, and hope we can make it at least 5 more weeks.  We are ready to see Julia, but she needs to cook just a bit longer.

I’m catching up on some new comments on our hip dysplasia page. Thank you to everyone who visits our page and is able to read our story on how we handled Elijah’s hip dysplasia. As the birth of our new baby is vastly approaching I can’t help but worry a little that we will be going through this all over again. I say worry even though looking back it really wasn’t all that bad and everyday I think of what other things could have been wrong with him and am very thankful for a healthy son. I asked our pediactrician what the chances were of us going through the same thing with this new baby. He said that of course there was a chance since it is genetic, but of all the things new parents worry about he said to put hip dysplasia on the very bottom of the list.