This is what an adorable 8 POUND baby looks like!

That's right! Yesterday we took Emily to the Child Specialty Clinic, and she weighed in at 8.1 pounds and measured 19.75 inches long! The nurse said they like to see the babies gain 20-30 grams per day once they go home, and Emily has averaged 32 grams per day since she has been home! Yay Emily!

The Child Specialty Clinic is an outreach of the same clinic in Iowa City, and Emily will be seen there until she is 5 years old. They will periodically check her development and growth to make sure she is on target for her corrected age (which means age from her original due date, not her actual birth date) and to identify any potential developmental issues early. This is just because she was a preemie, they don't have any specific concerns about her at this time.

At the appointment yesterday, they said Emily's size is GREAT, her movement is GREAT, and all around she is just doing GREAT! We can't ask for any better report than that!

We are still having to take Emily to the eye doctor for exams every 2 weeks to watch the progress of her ROP. One of her eyes is showing improvement (yay!), but the other continues to develop some Stage 2 ROP, and they have to make sure it doesn't develop any Stage 3 ROP, or surgery may be required. The exams are torture for Emily (and mom and dad!), so each time we have to go...its just not a good day. Ick. We go back on August 7th and we are praying hard for an A+++ report so we don't have to go back.

As far as everyday life...we really have been blessed with an easy baby. I hope I'm not jinxing myself by writing this! Emily's temperament is so pleasant, she really only fusses when she is hungry or gets a little bored and wants us to walk around with her. Her sleep schedule has been pretty good, she wakes up every 2.5-3 hours to eat, but at least at night she *usually* goes right back to sleep.

Troy and I are settling into somewhat of a routine now, and getting more comfortable and confident in our abilities to take care of Emily...while still taking care of other everyday things like dishes, laundry, mowing the grass, etc. Some days we do better than others of course :-)

Bella is starting to realize that Emily is here for good, and I think she is a little depressed. She is not happy about not being the center of mommy's attention anymore! For a while, she tried to be front and center wherever I was (aka wherever Emily was!), but she's slowly giving up. Poor Bella!

We have had lots of visitors in the last few weeks. Grandma and Grandpa H returned from their motorcycle trip and came to visit us...they brought ice cream, which you know earned them extra points in my book!

Grandma V has been visiting a lot so I can go run errands or to doctors appointments, etc. Emily also got to meet her cousins Dylan and Addison for the first time, although they have more fun playing with Bella than with Emily...which Bella totally appreciates!!

Grandma C came for the weekend a week ago, and gave me and Troy the wonderful gift of a FULL nights sleep. Ahhhh, it was great!

Emily had her 3 month birthday on July 19. We can't believe how far she has come! The first picture below was taken when Emily was 3 days old...the second picture, 3 months! Praise the Lord for our little miracle!

I guess that's about it for now...for my next post, I'll try to get more AWAKE pictures. I swear she doesn't sleep ALL the time!

Makin' Noises

Some pictures!

I know it has been a long time since my last update...sorry! But I'm sure you can understand we have been enjoying our time with Emily, and also dealing with the lack of sleep!


Things are going great, Emily is now up to 7 pounds!! Her last eye exam still showed some ROP in both eyes, so she has to get them checked again this week. She is NOT a fan of those eye exams, and the bigger and stronger she gets, the harder it is to see her fight through them.


I'll post more of an update another time...Grandma is here for the weekend to give us some relief and keep us company! Here are some recent pics :)

First bath at home

4th of July weekend with family

Snugglin' with my babies

It's almost my due date!

One week from today is the day Emily was supposed to be born. Instead, she will be 3 months old that day! Ah, what a journey we have been on...



Things are going good at home. Troy and I knew we wouldn't be getting much sleep for a while, but actually living through it is....HARD!! But Emily is thriving, which is all that matters. She had her first pediatrician appointment on Thursday and she weighed in at 6 lb 13 oz - she had gained an ounce a day since we left the hospital!! The doctor was impressed :)



This week she has an appointment with the eye doctor, which means another icky eye exam. They are watching to make sure her ROP doesn't get any worse.

I'm the Big Sister!

My mom came back to town this weekend to help us settle in to our "new" life. Which means Bella is back for good now! Bella has been such a trooper through this whole thing, being carted back and forth to my mom's house and probably not knowing what the HECK was going on, or where she would be living from day to day. She has adapted so well! Much thanks to my mom for taking Bella in, she already has 2 dogs of her own so she certainly has her hands full when Bella is there.

Bella is really taking to her new role as Big Sister! She is curious about this new, squeaky, smelly being who is getting lots of our attention. But she has not gotten too excited or tried to get too close to Emily. We are supervising her very closely to make sure things continue to go this well, but I have a feeling she is going to be very protective of her little sister!

Bella checking Emily out...I was waiting to see what her next move would be!

Expressing her opinion of her new sister - yes, she is licking her butt :-)

Coexisting nicely with her new sister...

Is this heaven? No, it's HOME!!!

I can't believe it - we are all HOME! After 74 days in the NICU, Emily was released today! I'm calling today OUR Independence Day, even though its only July 2nd :)

Leaving the hospital was a little bittersweet, the staff at Genesis have all been wonderful to us and to Emily. We will especially miss nurses Mary Lou and Lori, but we really loved all the nurses who cared for our little girl.

We have a long list of follow-up appointments for Emily - the pediatrician, cardiologist, hospital follow-up clinic, eye doctor, visiting nurses....but for now, we are HOME (I love that word!) and just enjoying having Emily officially part of our household. It feels soooooooooooo good!

Getting ready to be strapped in!

Mommy rode in the back with me

And Daddy drove us home!

HOME!

Emily's welcome banner and balloons

Our first family picture at home :-)