Baby Pictures

The hospital baby pictures are up on the website www.our365.com, you can put Stella's birthdate in- January 29 and pull up her pictures! The password is 73441259181636....let us know if this one looks like MOMMY!!!
Also, things are going good, now we are just trying to get some sleep anytime we can!! Stella is doing wonderful, still a fabulous baby, eating every 4 hours and getting bigger everyday. We have another Dr. appt next week so I will update then!

Welcome Home Baby

We are home. Friday was busy from leaving the hospital to getting settled in our house, Saturday we were tired from the first night alone home with our baby and explaining to Sittre Paige why her sister came home....apparently she thought Stella would live at the hospital and today we hung out with our 2 girls. We are adjusting to having 2 kids....balancing attention can be hard, but Sittre Paige has been awesome. Being 3 years apart is a good thing, she loves looking at Stella and feeding "her" baby when I feed Stella but also she is old enough to play by herself. Right now, its good. On another note, having a preemie is a little different, we are struggling with some of the feedings, Stella won't stay awake, or she has massive spit-up from reflux.....I mean we are talking coming out the nose...yuck. So feedings are sometimes tough and extremely messy but other than that she is pretty much asleep. I think the longest we have seen her awake is probably 20 minutes. She can sleep through anything, they say that NICU babies adapt to alot of noise and she certainly has. Nothing wakes her up, not even sister's singing...a.k.a...screaming. We have Stella's first Dr. appt in the morning at 8:30, which should be interesting because we have lots of questions. But other than that, we are doing great thanks to all our family and friends. I posted a picture of our beautifully decorated door with a welcome home sign and a basket with diapers, wipes, and some great goodies! There was no card that said who did it. So I just wanted to take time to thank the "anonymous", it really is such a wonderful feeling to have friends that give all the glory to God and truly do things from their heart.....Matthew 6:3-4. (although I did find out....thank you Crys and Abbie!) One of the biggest blessings that God has given me is my precious friends. I am truly grateful and hope one day I can be the same kind of blessing that they are to me. Also we have an Aunt who constantly goes above and beyond for us, Joy, brought us some groceries and her homemade lasagna so that we wouldn't have to get out. We love her more than she will ever know and are so thankful for her!! I really want to be just like her, she is one of the most giving people I have ever known!

I also posted some pictures of our closet, a.k.a. "the family room" we stayed in Thursday night, and then a picture of us leaving Friday morning with our baby Stella.

Okay, its been a looong 3 1/2 weeks but we made it!!! It felt like we would never get here!!! So now we sit back and watch Stella grow. Our Savior and your prayers got us here, we can't say thank you enough!

About to leave...

Okay, Stella is all set to leave. We have taken her hospital baby pictures, done the routine discharge information, got the monitors turned off and now we wait for the Dr. to officially come tell us we can leave. The night went great, she slept and ate, and we slept with one eye open and proudly got up to feed her when it was time. Something we learned about our baby.....she is not a cryer.......when shes hungry, she grunts and makes ALOT of noise (its sounds like we do when we are stretching). Interesting. As of right now, she is a wonderful baby, things could be different when we get home with sister!
Thanks for keeping up with us, the journey home is almost over, we can't wait to get home and be a new family of four!

IN the family room....

We are here. The night has finally come. We are in the family room actually taking care of our baby. We got here around 5 and were literally thrown into a room not much bigger than a closet and told "here's your baby". So we sat on the bed looking at each other and then Stella, then each other and then Stella. Believe it or not, we were nervous. We were told she should eat again at 8:30 and other than that she's all ours. So since we haven't been with her 24/7, we sat there and watched her sleep for 3 hours, she makes lots of noises but sleeps so peacefully. She is still on the monitor just to make sure there are no heart rate drops.
At 8:30 we got the nerve to pick her up, so we changed her, kissed on her, and then gave her a bottle. She took the first 30cc's great and then we had to get the nurse to help us with the next 30cc's. She really had to work with Stella, I'm talking pinching cheeks, taking off blankets, lifting chin and basically bugging her. The nurse said she can just get way to comfortable and needs to be woke up during feedings. So we will try again at 12:30 to see if we can work on that a little better. We have taken pictures of the room but forgot to bring the proper tools to be able to upload them so we will post those later. As of right now, the night has started off really good, its 10pm and I have been holding my baby since her feeding so I might TRY to put her down and get some rest before her next feeding. Thanks for your prayers, as much as we are loving this room, we are certainly ready to be in our own house! We will update later!

Day 5...preparing for homecoming

Well the nurses have officially started to prepare us for Stella's homecoming. So Friday is still the day that we are suppose to bring her home. We learned this week about something called the "Family Room". This is a room that the mom and dad stay in with baby the night before the baby comes home. So we have plans to be at the NICU on Thursday at 5:00pm to begin the journey home. They do this in case the parents have questions throughout the night and most importantly to monitor the baby's vitals every 4 hours. The nurse told us we do all the work just like we would at home they are just there for support, in case something happens or we need them. We are excited for this night to come. We have watched 3 of Stella's roommates go home this week and can't wait for our chance!! Also, Stella weighs 5 pounds tonight!!! The Dr. put her on rice cereal with her formula to help her gain weight, and this also helps prevent heart rate drops and helps with acid reflux. So as of right now it seems to be working. She is eating about 60cc's every 4 hours, so schedule-wise the nurses have done a great job getting her ready for us. The Dr. has also talked with us about Stella getting a shot to prevent RSV, a respiratory virus that can sometimes be fatal. Since she was a preemie and has an older sister, she is a high risk to get this and this also means we are pretty much home-bound until April. Thankfully we can take walks around the neighborhood to get some fresh air, but malls, stores with lots of people and being around other kids is a big no-no. So needless to say, we are pretty excited about Easter, this should be about the time we venture out as a family. Well, that is all we have learned. The next blog, hopefully will be written from the family room, we are pretty excited to journal the first night with our baby. We are certainly praying for God to prepare us as we bring home a baby that is truly not much bigger than one of Sittre Paige's babydolls.

Day 3

We made it to Day 3!! Tomorrow we will be half way there and we are so excited. Stella is 4 pds 9 oz today. She is eating so much, they moved her feedings to every 4 hours instead of 3 and she is eating between 55cc's to 75cc's. She is growing and we really pray that by the time we bring her home she is 5 pds! Basically she is eating and sleeping and pooping....what every baby should be doing at 2 weeks old!!!

Most importantly, NO heart rate drops. Praise Jahweh!!!

Also, we want to THANK OUR WONDERFUL CHURCH FAMILY!!! Although we weren't able to attend, we were given a suprise baby shower last Wednesday night. We recieved so MANY awesome things....especially much needed diapers and wipes!! The love and support of our church has really pulled us through these last couple of weeks and we can never thank you enough!! Most importantly for the prayer lifting up our baby. Spring Valley Baptist is an anwser to OUR prayers!! Thank you!!! We love you!!!

We have added a picture of the most AWESOME diaper wreath that we recieved!! It is soooo cute!!! I might cry when I take it apart!!

The countdown is ON!! Day 1

We were told today that Stella's countdown home has started!! Today is day 1. If there are no heart rate drops she will come home on Day 8, that is next Friday!!! This was such exciting news, she is really doing great, her weight today was 4 pds 7oz, she is eating 55cc's every 4 hours, and she is keeping up her body temp perfectly. All we can do is praise God for the work He is doing right now. Again, please pray these next days are easy and Stella is at her healthiest. The only thing that would stop this countdown is a heart rate drop and the only thing that would stop the heart rate drops is the healing from our Ultimate Physician. No matter the outcome of these next days, we will never stop praising our God. In sickness and in health, He is most Holy.