Super grandma!

Super grandma is very happy that she can see daryl without going to the hospital.

A New Duck

Daryl sure likes sitting in her bouncer. her favorite part is this jingly duck. she has figured out how to whack it and make it jingle all by herself. what a smart girl. thanks Bev! Daryl loves ducks

Look a Harley Davidson!

Super uncle Bill never got to visit daryl in the hospital, so we introduced them on saturday.She looks comfy on a bike, doesn't she?

Look a Puppy!

Daryl and Rosie arent quite sure what they think of each other yet. the dogs have been outside mostly since daryl came home. We will introduce them slowly and try to teach them that each other isn't food.

Dexter is also a dog

Look, A Cousin!

Noah has been visiting Daryl every week in the hospital, but she had only heard rumors of her cousin Connor. he was very excited to see all of Daryl instead of just her face.

More good things about the NICU

Dr. Ibrahim was one of the first doctors to see Daryl when we were first admitted into the NICU. Also one of the first to tell us everything would be ok someday.From the very beginning, and at the very end of our journey, she took very good care of Daryl, and us for that matter. Dr. Ibrahim told all the nurses in our room to make sure that she could be the one to tell us we were going home. On tuesday afternoon, Daryl had only been nursing for four days, but had taken to it quite well. We expected the doctors to want to observe her for a while and maybe send us home in a week or two. Dr. Ibrahim told us they would be observing Daryl for 1 day and that she would send us home on thursday. 48 hours left in the hospital.And we were hoping to have her home by Christmas! Thanks Dr. Ibrahim, for kicking us out so soon.

Thanks Lacey

This is Lacey. She was our childlife specialist who would escort Noah to visit Daryl in the hospital every thursday, unless she was on a tropical island. Now Noah doesn't need an escort anymore, and he gets to be a big brother for more than an hour at a time. Thanks for the headstart Lacey

And On The Hundredth Day She Rested

Welcome home Daryl. Leanna made all the bedding for the bassinet, and my dad painted it. It has been hidden under laundry for 3 months because it was so sad to see it empty. Well it isn't empty anymore. she just barely fits in it still. She slept through the night pretty well, but Leanna sure didn't. We are realizing all the things we don't have yet, like a diaper pail. Daryl was in the NICU for 99 days, so today makes her 100 days old. Bringing her home for the first time makes it feel like her birthday, only we already know her. I wonder if the cuckoo clock reminds her of the beeping monitors in the NICU?

Good things about living in the NICU

This is us with one of the best nurses ever. Pomben took care of Daryl for about a month when we were neighbors with her primary patient. Lots of things happened when Pomben was in charge, and she made us feel good about the bad ones and better about the good ones. Whether it was a straight answer, or just a laugh, Pomben always knew the right thing to say to us. Thanks Pomben

Blue Jeans

Daryl's picc line was removed tuesday, so we could dress her and take her away from the bed. this is her first pair of blue jeans. they were part of her going home outfit, and they still fit!

Good things about living at the NICU

This is Dr. Kim. She is one of the best things about the NICU. whenever something happened that we didn't understand,when we were panicking and pulling our hair out, Dr. Kim
would explain things to us very thoroughly. she made sure we understood what was happening, what could be done, and why not to worry. Thanks Dr. Kim. I still have hair left to pull out when we get home!

Episode IV: A New Hope

Well here it comes, the day we have all been waiting for. After 99 days in the NICU, daryl will be coming home tomorrow.Over the weekend, Daryl started breastfeeding, and dr. Trupp went ahead and let her have as much as she wanted. Well it turns out she wanted it all. She started eating over 90ccs which is more than what she can have and stay in the hospital!She is tolerating everything and being very happy with a full belly, so they have decided to kick her out. we have been hoping to have her home by christmas for so long that it is kind of shocking to get her home in time for the world series.Today has been spent shampooing the carpet and fitting Daryl's crib and stuff into the house. We are finally taking the car seat out of the wrapper and learning how it works.3 months and 5 days after she was born, she will finally be our little girl. I can come home from work, take off my shoes, and see my baby. no more fight ing stupid loma linda traffic, and circling the parking lot just to tell her i love her. and, at 6:30, I don't have to put her down and leave her ever again. I haven't decided whether i was happier when she was born, or happier to finally take her home. And just to jumpstart my fatherness, i go to noahs parent teacher conference today. He finally gets to be a brother! This will be a great day for the rudolph family. Attention world, here comes Daryl!!!

Fight the Power

I wonder if Daryl knows how awesome this picture is.

Daddy's Little Thrasher!!!

this onesie is awesome. Thanks uncle del and aunt Julie.

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Dinner Time!!!

So after being so tired of daryl's feeds being so small, on saturday they added 1 cc every 12 hours. that was kinda nice, but on sunday they decided to go every 3 hours! now her feedings go up 8cc every day, so if she tolerates them well, she will be at 90 next tuesday, and she can get rid of thaat stupid tpn bag that is killing her liver. We don't know what else she has to accomplish before she comes home, but getting off of tpn will sure be nice. she just might be home for thanksgiving. her puppy turned 1 year old on sunday, so she is a dog now, but daryl doesn't seem to mind. she is a very happy girl and doesn't look so sad when her bottle is empty anymore. Progress is good! I'll have new pics tomorrow or so.

Wow! a friend!

Obviously this was staged, but it sure is cute. Daryl's neighbor Kennedy gavethis to her, because they are too far away from each other to play together. Thanks family Bonomo.

Daryl's road trip

Daryl's tpn bag gets changed every night. This means that they have to unhook the old one. The process takes about 2 minutes, so while she isn't attached to any thing, we asked if we could take her for a walk. The first time this happened we didn't even leave the room, but i gotta tell ya, 15 feet is a long way when you've never been more than 18 inches away from your bed for two and a half months! Last night the nurses let us walk out of the room and down the hall. Poor Daryl probably thought she was going for another surgery, since that is the only other times she has left her bed. We really enjoyed our road trip, and someday, we will get out of the friggin building!

Evil Red Ball of Doom

So Daryl has a mobile hanging over her crib. sometimes we but her bouncy seat in the crib with her. this should give you a pretty good idea of what she thinks of the red ball on her mobile. interestingly, there are also pink balls on the mobile that she doesn't swing at or really get very scared of. if only one could know what she was thinking about that red ball!

This pink and black dress is awesome.thanks jenny

Talk about a low calorie diet

So this is what Daryl's dinner looks like. 6ccs. almost enough to fill up half of the rubber nipple. some babies eat 70-90 ccs every 3 hours. someday, Daryl will too.

What a hungry girl

Well yesterday was a pretty good day for Daryl. her feeds have been increased to 6 ccs every 3 hours, which is the most she has ever eaten.the last time she ate before the surgery she was getting 5 ccs, but then she backed up and had to stop. she still seems to be tolerating well, her poo is solid enough and shows no signs of diarrhea. the doctors are going very slow with the increases because she only has 40/65 cm left of intestine, so they want to know how much she can handle. it is so slow and she is always hungry after we feed her. once she gets to 90 ccs every 3 hours she will be able to get off the tpn bag. we hope it doesn't take 3 more months at 1cc per day. she acts like a normal little baby, so we want to take her more than 18inches from her bed. oh well. i thasn't been 5 months yet.but it sure seems like it.

Look a Pumpkin!

Is this the cutest thing you've ever seen?This used to be the color of her skin!

So we ended up with 2 cats, 2 witch and 3 pumpkin outfits, so we decided to unload them on the, well, suspecting parents in the room. Now there is a pumpkin patch in room three. I shudder to think how bad it will be when it actually is halloween! maybe everybody will be home by then. if not, Daryl told us she wants to be a nurse.

Look a witch!

So I think one of the main reasons people have kids is so they can do things like this to them . This was the cutest daryl had ever looked until...

so im going through pictures of daryl trying to pick my favorite ones and i am realizing that there are so many ones of her that i love, im having trouble picking out just a few to post. i wanna post all 1000 of them, but that would take all night... anyway the pictures we have been taking recently are so much nicer cause she is doing so much better now. still no date for going home though, and it sometimes feels like we are gonna be at loma linda forever. the doctors can never give us an answer to the famous NICU question: how much longer are we gonna be here?

so i know these ones are kinda scary but they were taken right after her last surgery a few weeks ago and it reminds me how far we have come already since then

so daryl is starting to finally eat, and its such a small amount that the milk actually fits inside this nipple. without the bottle. she wants so much more than that but the doctors want to take it slow. slow... like its been from the beginning. everything happens so slowly.

i think she is happy here.. she sure is cute anyway!

she is yelling at the nurses to leave her alone!!

herm is a happy girl!!

Daryl found dad's beard. looks like she likes it. she got 6 hairs that i had to take away from her!

If she only knew

This is Daryl's first bad hair day. It reminds me of Egon Spengler.you nerds know what i mean

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