Its the final countdown... (come on, sing the song).

December 27 was Maren's one month birthday. Its insane how fast time flies... and how slowly it goes at the same time.
The difference in this little girl in the past 5 weeks is absolutely incredible. As of yesterday she was off everything - feeding tube, meds... everything. She has vitamins and Iron (lucky for her she inherited my anaemic tendencies).
She is just an ounce under 5 pounds and steadily gaining. I'm telling you she's a superstar.
The doctor mentioned the words HOME yesterday!!!! We were gearing up for at least 3 more weeks but if she continues to rock her world we're looking at next week. I swear I almost kissed the doctor... we've been away for faaaaar too long.
So, there are a few things that have to happen before we can officially go home. She has to go 5 days in a row without any bradycardia or desats (drops in heartrate and oxygen saturation), then she has to be off her monitors for a couple of days. AND she has to pass her carseat test (sit in a car seat without bradys or desats for an hour). She came sooo close today but desatted with 10 minutes to go. I'm guessing it won't be long til she rocks that test too. That's one I don't want to rush since we do have a bit of travel time when we do get released.

Nyla went home with Darryl on the 27th. I cried like a baby, but she's doing great. Darryl has had a few extra days off so she's settling into normal home life. Apparently she went all around the house saying hi to all her things (she was especially happy to see her tubby).
I know its the best for all of us, but its hard to be away from that little pinkyponk (Imelda's little name for Nyla).

Christmas was nice. We got a little tree and Darryl brought decorations with him. Nyla decorated the tree with a tiny bit of help from us... I can't wait to share pictures. She's so freaking funny :)
She was floored that Santa came to leave her presents :) Even the NICU 'Santa' left a present for her (have I mentioned how amazing the NICU nurses are here???).

I'm staying in Maren's room with her now, so I'm finally getting the quality time with her that we both needed. I can't wait to share pictures of this whole journey.
I have great friends and family who have been an amazing support to me. Thanks for listening to the sobbing phone calls (or emails) and rejoicing in all the progress, no matter how small it was.
Thanks to Diane and Imelda for coming to help watch Nyla. Thanks to Hollie and Tracey (and Chloe) for everything you did to help us.
I love you all.
Stay tuned for great news in the near future!