Showers of Love

We had Emy's first baby shower yesterday. We had a great time and received so many wonderful and thoughtful gifts. We feel so blessed. Now all we need is her to come home!

Emy is now 1 1/2 ounces shy of 4 lbs. and taking 4 bottles a day. She needs to be taking 8 bottles a day to come home. We are getting there!

A Sweet Song for Sweet Emy

Turn up your volume...

I'll post new pics soon.

Sleeping Beauty

My Baby's Bottle Feeding!

Emy's nurse that night was a nun from Kerala, India. Both of Emy's NICU doctors are from India (one from Delhi & one from Chennai). I just find that really special.



Dustin feeding Emy for the first time.

That's right! She started Thursday morning and took to it like she'd been doing it all of her life! They started out with 5 ml. to see if she could handle it and she ended up eating 25 ml.! That's my girl! I was expecting a very traumatic event, but she did so well! The nurse started her feeding and let me take over when she realized how well she was doing.

This is a big deal for several reasons...babies learn to suck, swallow and breathe at the same time at around 34-35 weeks gestation. Emy is 34 weeks. Once she starts bottle feeding she'll gain weight. When she starts gaining weight she'll reach the point were she starts gaining fat. The more fat she gains the easier it is for her to hold her body temp. It's the snowball effect. When she does all of those things she'll come home! I believe she'll come home on oxygen and monitors, but at least she'll be home.


P.S. She's now 3 lbs. 10 1/2 oz.!

Emy's Gone "Tube-less"!

A wink...


And a smile...









Thursday morning, Emy was taken off of the ventilator! Huge step, HUGE STEP! They even let me pull the tube out of her throat. She looks so much like a "real" baby now. What I mean is that I can actually see her full face, lips and all - no distracting, massive tube. Thursday was the first time I was able to do that. She has a tube pumping oxygen into her nose, but she's completely breathing on her own. The RT's said she's the poster-child for transition off of the vent. She handled it so well. She is having to deal with life without narcotics. She's had heavy pain meds all of her life and they took her off cold-turkey on Thursday. They have to do that because the drugs relax her so much that she may forget to breathe. Hey, hook me up, right? J/K

Anyway, she's a tough cookie and is handling things really well. The pics you will see is of me swadling her for the fist time. Dustin and I were sick for 5 days and I wasn't able to visit her the entire time. Holding her on Thursday almost felt like holding her for the first time.

P.S. She may get to wear clothes soon! Now, I only need to find micro-preemie clothes...