Gaining Independence!

On Monday, we had an appointment for me and an appointment for Micah. My appointment was to check my incision and its healing process. It was funny, because as the doctor walked in, he had a huge smile on his face and said "we don't care about you anymore", and went right to Micah. He loved seeing him again :) He then checked me and said that my incision is healing well, so that was good to hear. He also told me that I can slowly start to increase my activity and even drive!!! That is where the independence is coming in. I have had to depend on other people to drive me around since April 22!! It was such a relief to hear that I could finally drive. After the appointment, Matt told me, "so I guess you are driving home" and I did. It felt great to finally drive again. I actually found it a lot easier than when I started driving after 3 weeks of hospital bedrest. It helps that I have been able to walk around more in the last 6 weeks or so. I was able to build up some muscle strength in my legs, which was good.

Right after my appointment, we went across the hall to Micah's appointment. He weighed in at 8lbs 6oz. The doctor said that was not good and that he really should be at his birth weight by now, but he was not too concerned. The reason he was not concerned right now is because everything else about Micah looks great. The dr. was amazed with how alert Micah is and how strong he is. He said that if he didn't see such strength, he would be concerned about the weight. So, we are going to continue working to get his weight up and I will need to take him in next Monday morning for a quick weight check. I have decided at this point to not try and breastfeed. Because, we are still having issues with weight gain, I feel like I can better control what he is eating through a bottle. It was when I was breastfeeding that he had the biggest weight loss, so I feel that this is the best decision. I am continuing to pump milk so that he can at least have breast milk and we are supplementing with formula when needed. I hope that I can keep doing it for awhile, but I am just going day by day right now.

As a family, we are starting to adjust to our new life. Things get better each day as our routine settles in and as I feel better and better. Right now, the big problem for me is my back. That seems to be the one lingering problem from bedrest. If it continues to be an issue, I will talk to my doc at my 6 week appointment about possible therapy for my back. Hopefully, it will resolve itself in the next few weeks.

Matt and I got out for a few hours last night when we went to the March of Dimes Signature Chefs Auction. It was a lot of fun and it was good to do something normal and just the two of us. We have not done anything by ourselves in months, so it was nice to have that little break, even though it was only a couple of hours.

Driving and getting out gave me a small sense of what my life was like before bedrest :) It is great to finally get some of this independence back and to get some of our normal life back! We are so happy to have our family together and complete. We have a lot to be thankful for this year!