Our Visit to Burlington

NICU 2010: Rachel and Jeff Mars with twins Bradon and Riley, Carleen Meseck with Ty, Tara, Shawn and Kadence Graham with Owen, and Randy and I with Stella - (missing Dawning and Nina from NYC, who had left prior to this photo)

We had a wonderful and very busy  trip to Burlington!  It was an emotional weekend but we got through it and it was nice to see some Fletcher Allen friends.  When Trey passed we just sort of up and left without saying goodbye to anyone, so this was a nice chance to just let people know we are thinking of them.

The NICU Reunion was a lot of fun despite the rain.  We had a chance to catch up with some people who meant a lot to us.  The picture above features some long-term NICU families during the beginning of '10.  We also had some time to visit with some NICU staff including two of our favorites:

Stella with Lizzy B. - one of her primaries, and our NICU 

'Mother'

Stella with Miss Heidi, one of Trey's primary care givers

In addition to the NICU Reunion Picnic, we had a great time visiting with Caroline and Caleb.  We had a delicious dinner out on Sunday night and were very grateful to stay the night at their house.  Stella had some quality time with Caroline - her 'Burlington Auntie'.

Stella's doctors appointment today went great.  We were able to see Elizabeth, the nurse practioner who has been working with Stella from the beginning, as well as Dr. Johnson, a neonatalogist we had been hoping to run into.  Stella has made wonderful progress - she now weighs 15 lbs. 15.5 oz. so she no longer needs to have fortified formula (we can just follow the directions on the side of the can now, no special recipe!).  They gave us some more tips for homemade baby food options and said they don't need to see her again until the end of December.  We are so pleased that Stella is doing so well.

We finished off our hospital trip with visits to both the PICU and NICU to see staff we had spent time with during our long stay.  We also stopped in to see Beth's colleague Nancy who is recovering from a very serious illness.  She is doing well and it was good to see her getting back on her feet!  All in all we had a great visit.  The first trip in to the parking garage was a little overwhelming, but once we made it into the hospital it wasn't so bad.

Our trip to Burlington would simply not have been complete without a visit to the Ronald McDonald House.  We stopped in to drop off a few items and to see some of the house staff.  They greeted us just as warmly as they always have...