Visit From Santa

This past week Santa came to the hospital to visit all the babies.  We had to get her all dressed up for this special occasion.  I was excited to see that she fit into this newborn dress.

And this is what Natalee did while waiting for Santa to arrive.  Look at those chunky cheeks...I love it!  Natalee is weighing 5 pounds 4 oz!  Once she is able to eat all of her feedings on her own she will be ready to come home.  She is eating about 1/3 of them. She is still pretty exhausted during the day...growing is a lot of work!

Natalee and Santa!

She wasn't awake for very long.  Santa has a lot of cushion on his belly that makes for a comfortable bed.  Thanks for stopping by Santa and visiting with Natalee. What she wants for Christmas Santa is to come home to be with her family. We pray that happens very soon!

A Great Week For Natalee!

 12/10/11  Natalee had such an awesome past week.  She met many mile stones this week.  She is now 4 1/2 pounds and is 15 3/4" long and her head circumference is 12".  She is now off her oxygen and now is in an open crib.

 This was the first time Nana got to hold her since in the beginning they just let the parents hold them.  But now she is a "BIG" girl now she gets to be held by her visitors.  This was a special moment for Nana and Natalee. 

She got a bath by mom this day.

 And also got to be snuggled by Nana and Mom.

 Natalee is eating part of her feedings this week by bottle and even started breast feeding too.  Once she is able to eat her full feedings on her own she will get the feeding tube removed from her nose and she can come home.  The doctor said he is thinking about 2 more weeks and then she can come home.  That will be right before Christmas!  We are very excited!

I am in love this this precious girl!  This has been such a long road for our family these past few months but it will be worth every moment when she is home. 

Keep growing sweet Natalee and we all can't wait until you come home!

4 Pounds!

12/2/11 Yeah!  Natalee is 4 pounds!  You can see that double chin coming in!  We are so excited our baby is getting chunky!  I love this little face as if were saying, "What is going on? Enough with the pictures already."  The doctor told us today they will start weaning off of her oxygen in the next 2 days.  Next they will be working on the bottle feeding so we can take her home.  What a blessing she is and we are truly grateful that all is going well.  Keep it up Natalee and we will be taking you home sooner that you know it!

2 Month Birthday!

 11/29/11 Natalee had her 2 month birthday!  As you can see she is getting so big.  She is now wearing big girl clothes.  Of course the nurse and I had to get her all dressed up for this special occasion.

 What a cutie pie!  Natalee weighs 3 pounds 11 ounces!  She is gaining weight every day.  She is 15 3/4" long.  The doctor thinks we will be able to get her home by Christmas.  That would be the best gift ever!

 Here are the awesome two nurses that always watch Natalee.  Shannon on the left and Ronnie on the right.  These ladies are amazing!  At this hospital they have "Primary" nurses for their babies.  So every day they work they have the same babies that they care for so they get to know the babies.  So if something changes in the babies the nurses will know what is normal or not normal for the baby.  So these two are Natalee's primary nurses.

 I have a special connection to Shannon since we figured out that we are the same age, graduated nursing school the same year, and both like to run.  She takes extra good care of Natalee and we are so blessed to have awesome nurses for her.

My sister-in-law Megan made this banner to hang up in her room awhile back and I kept forgetting to post it.  Thanks Megan, we love it!  It says exactly what I wanted to say:  We love you Natalee!  Your are our precious baby girl!

Daddy Time

Every weekend I come home to be with Kenadee and Brylee and Brit goes to Glendale to spend time with Natalee.  I am so glad that they allow the dads to Kangaroo Care with the babies.  Brit enjoys this time with his daughter.  Her little pumpkin hat is just about too small for her now. 

You can see a little bruise on her forehead.  She she was getting her last blood transfusion she had an IV in her forehead and the IV was infiltrating and resulted in this bruise.  This little girls has been through a lot.  She is so tough!  When I was talking to him on the phone while he was holding her he said "Ouch!"  I said "What?" and he said "She is pulling my chest hair."  It gave her something to grasp on to.  Quite funny!  As of 11/20/11 she is 3 pounds 2 oz and is 35 cm long.  You are doing so great Natalee!  Keep it up!

11/17/11 Bath Time!

 
 Natalee loves bath time!  She usually is wide awake during bath time, but just about slept through this whole bath.  I mentioned to the nurse that she seemed so tired and fatigued during the bath and while I was holding her.  She usually looks at me frequently while I hold her and kicks her legs a lot but this time she just slept and hardly moved.  I even mentioned that she seemed a little pale and her oxygen saturations were dropping more frequently than normal.  I was worried about her.  Natalee was scheduled to have an eye exam this same evening.  So what the nurses tell me the eye exams were pretty traumatic for the babies since they have to pry open their eyes with what the nurse described to me as a misshapen paperclip.  The eye exam usually wares the babies out since they usually cry during it.  Shortly after the eye exam Natalee's oxygen saturations went down and normally she brings them right back up.  Not after this particular desaturation.  So they had to give her extra oxygen with a face mask and bag to bring her saturations back up.  They did blood tests and found out that she was anemic.  They want her hematicrit above 30 and Natalee's was 27.  So on 11/16/11 she had her fourth blood transfusion. 

I'm so glad that they were able to figure it out quickly and it could be fixed with a blood transfusion.  As of 11/17/11 Natalee weighs 2 pounds 14 ounces.  She is getting so big! Her oxygen flow is down to 4L/min.  I'm so glad she is feeling much better after her blood transfusion and is back to her normal self.