Crafty Friends

I am not Martha Stewart. The last time I sewed anything was in high school home ec class when I made a laundry bag. However, I have some very talented friends.

I posted all of the pictures from the NICU of Willa's hats made by my neighbor Paige.

Another friend made us three changing pads. They are great. Willa has pooped and peed on all of them. I just flip them over to the clean side and don't worry about washing them until both sides are soiled.


My mom brought us a car seat cover made by a friend from back home. I will say when the friend texted us and asked for a picture of our car seat handle I was a bit confused. Her gift is so simple but so genius and I haven't seen one in any of the baby stores around here. Also, the car seat cover is great for keeping people from stopping us and wanting to see Willa. Small babies sure attract attention.

All of this is on top of the many beautiful blankets we have received - Quilted and crocheted...if that is the correct wording. Willa is loved.

Ladies, I think you could sell these on Etsy and city slicker women like myself will be your biggest customers. I already have buyers lined up for all of you. I won't even take a commission.

Wednesday - Recap of Shelly's Discharge Day

I love how we were told about the timing of my discharge from the hospital. They never discharge a new mom before noon. Also, they didn't want me to feel like they were kicking us out...but there were currently 16 women down in labor & delivery. Daren and I decided to be out of the room by 2pm and be at the NICU for the 230pm feeding and stay until after the 530pm feeding before heading home for the night.

It took us until Wednesday to figure out when to schedule visitors to see us and Willa. The magic time is 30 minutes before a feeding. We get to visit with them for a bit in our room and then we trek down to the NICU to show off our princess. Jeff and Judy were our guinea pigs. All would have gone perfectly but the visit was interrupted by rounds.

We had a large crowd of folks with rounds. The NICU attending and followers AND the peds surgeons were able to make it at the same time.  The big points of the rounds was discussing a timeframe of dismissal for Willa but they didn't give and numbers. Such a tease. One new person to the rounds was a representative from occupational health therapy. These will be the folks to create the prosthetic used to crank down on the omphalocele. Also, Willa was moved from pod D (acute care) to pod B (maintenance care). The biggest difference for us as parents is a quieter atmosphere and less babies. Big plus for Daren and I is more room to maneuver and the ability to have our laptops and drinks with us.  Although, we did lose our window view.

Our final visitor before being dismissed was neighbor Paul stopping by to bring us some love from our neighbors. We feel so supported. We even got some fashion accessories. Now if we could just start putting clothes on little Willa.

Hats and swaddle blankets

We got home around 8pm and I could only think about sleep. I'm sure Daren appreciated having a bed larger than what he used in the hospital.

We sprung for the "king suite"