2 months and other ramblings......

Today our sweet little girl is two months old! It is also coincidentally our 1 year anniversary. We've spent the day at home hanging out as a family...we enjoyed sonic for breakfast, a walk in our new BOB Stroller (LOVE it), and are currently watching the storms. Later tonight we have a yummy dinner planned and then we will test out our year old wedding cake! Our original intentions were to have the top layer recreated. Our cake lady does this for an EXTREMELY reasonable price but needless to say we've been rather busy this year....maybe next year. Next weekend Steven's cousin is getting married. Since our pediatrician still recommends keeping Ellie out of large crowds she will not be attending with us :(. However, we will take that opportunity to enjoy a nice dinner out.

Tomorrow we will get the official stats on Miss Ellie but we know she's about 9lbs maybe just over and pushing 24 inches long if not already there. As you can imagine this creates quite the challenge finding clothes to fit our long skinny little girl!! We head to her 2 month well check. We've done some research and will be sticking with the recommended immunizations. We read various reports and couldn't really gather enough decision to have strong feelings either way so we will stick with what our pediatrician recommends.

What a difference a month makes....

Ellie your mommy and daddy love you so much and thank God for you every single day. We know you had a rough start in this little world but we are so thankful for how far you've come. At 2 months old you are holding your head up quite well, LOVE to smile but you are also very selective of who you share these smiles with, enjoying laying in the floor, eating anywhere between 3 and just over 4 ounces at every feeding, sometimes you like to snack during the day too, you still are eating only breast milk through a bottle, LOVE bath time, hate when it's time for your stinky vitamins, a great sleeper, EXTREMELY content and loved to be held but definitely let us know when you've had enough!

We couldn't be more than happy with Ellie's progress up to this point. The doctor continually reminds us that it's ok that she might be 4 to 5 weeks behind on all of her development milestones and that preemies typically catch up by the time they are 2. So far she's been pretty close to right on track with a full term baby! The doctor still has waking up/making sure Ellie eats every 3 hours. Sometimes I think she would be more than content to eat a larger amount at midnight and then not eat again until about 5 am. Where as now she currently eats between 11 and 12 then we wake her up to eat at 3 and then she wakes herself up between 5 and 6. Don't get me wrong there are some nights where she wakes up on her own to eat at 2 or 3!

We exchanged mother's day and anniversary gifts already. We typically try to stay away from doing this but we both got each other combined gifts this year. Since we were engaged I've had my eye on a necklace at the jewelers that designed my engagement ring and Steven and Ellie surprised me with it this year for Mother's Day and our anniversary. Steven has wanted a new blu-ray and surround sound for awhile so Ellie and I surprised him with that for our anniversary and an early father's day gift.

WOW that was a lot for one post...I guess that's what happens when you fall behind on your blogging!

New Friends!

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to meet one of my blogger friends in real life! All though we have SO many acquaintances and were at OU at the same time there is a chance our paths have crossed prior to last Thursday! I don't quite remember how we found each others blogs but everyone should check out Nicole's wonderful blog HERE!

I joined Nicole at Junior Hospitality end of the year and 75th anniversary celebration! If you've never heard about Junior Hospitality you should check out their website and their blog (that of course Nicole blogs on:)). I was so honored to be Nicole's guest and learn about this amazing organization as well as meet a great group of women!!

I would be honored to one day consider myself a member of JH and everyone should definitely check out the amazing things they are doing in our community!!! Also, check out Nicole's blog and the great award she won at the banquet! It was great to finally meet her and I can see Nicole and I becoming great friends.

On another note our sweet little angel was 8 weeks old today and she is growing like crazy!! On Monday she has her 2 month well baby check and will also be getting her 2 month shots :(. Tomorrow our sweet friend Becky is having her baby at Deaconess so Thursday we plan to make a visit to her and the sweet nurses that were so good to us in the NICU!

Two Sweet Girls

Our family friends youngest daughter is 8 and she is absolutely one of the sweetest things in the world! I was in college when Avery was born and I was pretty smitten! She was one of sweetest most content babies. I have LOVED getting to watch her grow into the sweet girl she is today! We have gone on family vacations to Florida, lake trips, Taylor Swift concert, she was in our wedding, long summer days swimming, pedicures......just to name a few of the things we've shared. She was so excited when we told her we were having a baby and even more excited when we found out it was a little girl. At Christmas this year she would watch my belly for as long as it took for Ellie to move. She told me things like when I got to big she would help me paint my toenails :). Last Saturday she came over and spent the day with us while her family was at her brother's track meet. She LOVED spending the day with Ellie and we LOVED having her she was such a big helper. She is the youngest of three with her siblings being 19 and 13....so being around a baby was new for her but you would have though she had 2 younger siblings! I can't wait for Ellie to grow up and have Avery in her life!

Funny Faces

Playing with Carson

Sweet girl

Taylor Swift!

4th Birthday

Opening Taylor Swift Tickets

Holding Ellie for the first time

Last Saturday...I LOVE this picture

Steven and I are both so thankful for so many sweet friends in our lives but we are extremely thankful for Avery and her family!

Newborn Pictures

I thought I would share the link to Ellie's newborn pictures should anyone want to take a peak. We are in big trouble.....I want them all :)

www.sweetberryphotography.com

go to client proofing
password egf10

Things I never thought I would think about.....

I came across this on preemie message board. It is so true how these things now apply to our life. We are so thankful and blessed by this sweet little girl. We knew our life would change but it has now changed in ways we never imagined! Having a baby prematurely has definitely shed some light on things and made us take everything from a different perspective.

The post was titled understanding preemie parents. I am so thankful our NICU stay was as 'short' as it was as I know it could have taken a much different path. I feel so blessed to be at home now where the highlights of my day are playing with my daughter, giving her a 'real' bath, playing dress up, feeding on our own schedule, etc versus the NICU where the highlights of our days were changing diapers that were finally poopy, learning that the diaper weighed enough so they could stop measuring them, only holding her for 20 minutes at a time and being forced to put her back to bed even though she was wide awake, etc.

Here is the article....

so, we may go a little nuts

about having a preemie...
losing our full term pregnancy and...
losing our "ideal delivery"...spending too many hours in the nicu...
not spending enough hours in the nicu...
leaving the hospital without our babies...
holding our babies for the first time...
all the acronyms you can imagine, and some you can't: C/S, IVH, PDA, NEC, ROP...
the privilege of changing diapers...
caring for our baby...
about germs in general...
the wonderment of a baby nipple feeding...
pumping all the time...
our babies' isolette linens matching...finding preemie clothes that make us feel like we have "real" babies...
having a baby shower- at all...
finding the perfect carseatstrollercribrockingchairnursingpillowfillintheblank...
taking our babies home...
not having a monitor to tell if they're ok...
not hearing beeping for the first time in months as we watch them sleep...hand sanitizer...
your "allergy cough"...
your runny nose...
about germs in general...
cigarette smoke...
anyone under 5 feet tall being within 5 feet...
strangers wanting to touch our sweet babies...
about germs in general...our babies gaining weight...
our babies' matching clothes...taking pictures...
the march of dimes...termie moms complaining...
doctors' appointments...
insurance bills...
showing the nicu we appreciate them...
reading everything we can...
message boards and blogs...
experiencing parenthood...
trying to connect with other people in our situation...
adjusted age...
developmental issues...
about germs in general...
future pregnancies...
future everything...

about cherishing every single moment.
and all of this is completely normal.
for friends and family, please just give preemie parents a crazypass. we deal with many things that termie parents can't imagine. we carry worry, guilt, doubt, fear and a sense of being overwhelmed with us almost every hour of every day.

1 month old

Pictures to come!

I can't believe our sweet little angel is one month old today!!! It seems like just yesterday I got the phone call from the doctor saying she needed to come today!

We had a check-up with the peditrician today and all is well. She weighed in a 6lbs 8oz. She was 20 1/2 inches long. When we were discharged from the hospital just over a week ago she was 19 1/2 inches long. Such a long skinny girl!!

We will go back to the peditrician for the standard 2 month well baby visit where she will receive her immunizations. We discussed development milestones and he said not to worry if she seems a little behind on somethings due to her prematurity. He said that typically the delays average out by the time they are 2 years old and it is absolutely nothing to be concerned about. She passed her first hearing screening with flying colors but it is standard for NICU babies to have their hearing re-checked at 6 months and 1 year so we will get that scheduled as well.

He is also checking with our insurance on the RSV vaccination. She isn't technically in a 'high-risk' category but at the same time she is. Insurance will automatically cover for babies born at 35 weeks who are under 3 months of age. However, by the time RSV season rolls around she will be 9 months of age. He doesn't feel that they are absolutely necessary but he feels that they can't hurt so it's worth a shot to see if insurance will cover them. If insurance doesn't cover them they come with a hefty price tag of $1600/month and babies need them for the entire RSV season which last for 6 or 7 months depending where you live!!!!

Right now we are working on getting our days and nights straight. It can be frustrating but he encouraged us to remember that most of the things done in the NICU were done overnight. Her bath was typically at 9 pm or 12 am and all of her bloodwork was done at 3 am. So during all of those times in the NICU she was woken up and kept awake for some period of time. He says that over the next couple of weeks things should start to even out!

So overall we had a great appointment. I can't stress how much we love our peditrician and how happy we are with our decision to use him!

Home!

We are all home and adjusting well....even our sweet Carson is home! Surprisingly he really isn't too interested in little miss he just leaves her alone and has been minding very well. It's pretty funny every time I put her down during the day he gets in his kennel and waits for me to shut the door. Someone must've told him to nap when the baby naps too! Steven went back to work today which was definitely strange after him being off for such a long time! My mom has taken the week off to spend time with us. We are SO thankful for lots of vacation time and both having a flexible boss!

Ellie is doing well she went to the pediatrician last Friday and weighed in at 6lbs 2oz. When she was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday she weighed 5lbs 14oz so a nice little gain. The pediatrician felt like everything checked out just great. When we were discharged the neonatologist had Ellie on 2 feedings of high calorie formula (Neosure). She would eat it but you could tell she wasn't too much of a fan! We talked to our pediatrician and since she was eating larger portions of breast milk and much smaller portions of the Neosure he felt that she wasn't really getting too much of a benefit from it so we got permission to stop! THANKFULLY....it was high in Iron and was not the best smelling stuff and you can only imagine what it did to her little tummy! We will have one more check this coming up Friday and then she won't go back until her 2 month check up! I also can't recommend our pediatrician highly enough as I know a few of you are expecting feel free to email me for his information!

We have lots of pictures to share but these are just a few that the sweet Melissa Wood took for at the hospital! Melissa LOVES newborn photography and sweet hospital sessions! She had offered to be there for Ellie's birth. Well seeing as how things happened so fast that just wasn't possible!!! So we waited until she was off all the 'equipment' in NICU and got their permission for Melissa to come up! However, by the time all of it was squared away and scheduled Ellie was released to room in with us!!!!! Here are just a few sneak peek pictures we can't wait to see the rest...THANK YOU Melissa for capturing these sweet moments! Melissa also took my maternity photos....I would share but I don't think anyone is interested in my bare belly

Of course we have ton more pictures to share but we will save those for another posts!! Speaking of pictures if anyone needs family photos, senior photos, anything I can't recommend these three people highly enough!!!

Our sweet friend Dia did our engagement pictures, my bridal portraits and our wedding!!! Maybe I should post some finally! She is adopting a sweet little girl set to arrive May 24th! I can't wait for sweet Ellie and Makenna to grow up together....book now before she gets busy. You can contact her through her blog and she will send you samples of her work:).

As I've said Melissa did my maternity and hospital photos. We took maternity pictures at Kaisers Ice Cream downtown and they were so much fun!!

We had newborn pictures taken by Trish at Sweetberry Photography! She is amazing to work with as well! We also have scheduled a watch me grow package with Trish which you can read more about on her website! We can't wait to take them!

Yes I know I think we will have plenty of pictures :) But I wanted to put the information out there for anyone who might be looking for a photographer for something!