Sweet treat!

Here is our little sweet pea!



This costume was originally worn by my niece Miranda 11 years ago! Her picture is below. Quite a size difference don't you think?! I think the peas are larger than Emma's head. I really had to tuck the outfit up under her back, and the hat was WAY too large to even tie on!



The nurses went nuts over Emma and had so much fun after I dressed her up. Our nurse today even took her out of her bed and walked around the NICU showing her off! She begged me to leave her dressed when I left today so she could show others who walked by. Fine with me! Emma was nice and warm in this outfit.

Here's Emma with her pumpkin mittens and purse!



Emma's weight is now 4 pounds, 3 ounces! Also, they said she is ready to move to a crib because she can keep her body heat and no longer needs her isolette to help warm her up. However, all of the cribs are currently being used, so she may not get her own crib right away.

She gobbled up a morning bottle in just 10 minutes this morning. In order to come home, she needs to do that with all 8 feedings during the day. We are hoping this could happen in the next 2 to 3 weeks, and she is certainly on a good pace for that!

Tuesday

A quick Tuesday update: Emma's length is now 16 1/2 inches (she was born at 15 inches)!

Emma took another full bottle for Daddy today. I told you she is Daddy's little girl! Her treat for taking her bottle is time to cuddle with him. Ah, she'd get that no matter what anyway!

Big girl news

Hey everybody - guess what? I weigh FOUR POUNDS!!

Here I am on the scale getting weighed. I'm a big girl now!

Love, Emma Marie

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Mama here! It's already apparent that Emma is Daddy's Little Girl! She drank her whole bottle for him last night. However, when I tried tonight she only drank one-fourth of her bottle for me! She did look pretty tired right after we started, but I was really hoping I could get a bottle in her to keep up with her progress. Maybe tomorrow! Instead I just held her while she slept, and the nurse hooked up her feeding. The easy way!

Here's a picture of her in a cute outfit from Sue. I just love this on her! She really loves to stretch when you unbundle her.



Emma looks to be having a sweet dream here. I often wonder what is going through her mind as I watch the expressions on her face while she's asleep! Or is it just gas... I don't know :)

So, we will try again tomorrow to keep making progress on her eating! Tonight we put together the stroller/car seat that my office so generously got for us. It was a lot of fun picturing wheelin' little Emma around in it!

Good night all!

BoSox!

Emma is so excited that the Boston Red Sox won the World Series! She knows that her second cousin Kevin is celebrating loudly tonight!!

Hungry girl!

This afternoon when we arrived at the hospital the nurse told us the Emma had taken a whole feeding by bottle this morning. This was good news since it was only the 2nd time she had even tried a bottle, and the last time she only got about 1/4 of a feeding from the bottle.

We decided that at 5:00, we'd try another bottle and see how she did. I'm proud to report that she took right to the bottle and took it right down in a hurry. The nurses like to see a baby finish their feeding within 30 minutes, but it only took Emma about 15 to polish it off. Today was also my first chance to burp little Emma; with a preemie burping consists of sitting her upright and just letting the air escape when it's ready, it was ready and exited with a mighty wind.

Emma's progress truly is amazing. The Lord is good! At every oppurtunity He has reminded us that we can trust in Him, even when we don't know which way to go.

Feeding is shaping up to be Emma's last challenge. Once she is comfortable feeding and puts on a little more wieght, I think we'll get to bring her home. We're feverishly getting ready for that moment. This weekend we painted the nursery and cleaned the carpet. Now it's time to start setting up her room with all the wonderful gifts you all have given her to get started with.

Beleive it or not, Jacki and I were looking at some of the preemie outfits she has and we're thinking they may not fit her for very much longer if even now. You GROW GIRL!

Emma's Daddy

Saturday excitement

Emma now weighs 3 pounds, 14 ounces! Can you believe that 4 pounds is just around the corner?!

Today Emma got to meet her Great Grandpa Apling! He and my dad were in Oregon for a family memorial in Bend, where he was born. It was a real treat for all of us that he got to meet his ninth great-grandchild, since it will be a while before we will be able to travel to Seattle. Emma is one of three great-grandchildren born since September 19th (when one of my cousins had a little girl)! Emma did open her eyes and peek at him several times :)

Late this afternoon the nurse informed us that Emma and her neighbor were both moving across the hall. She is a good pair with that little guy because he requires more attention than she does, so they try to pair up babies based on how much time and care they need. Emma is pretty low maintenance in this regard, so we are not complaining!

Anyway, at the time Ed was holding her, and so when they loaded up her Giraffe (isolette) to move it, he got to carry Emma over to her new location! He was hoping they would let him do that since she wasn't hooked up to any monitors. So, before we left this evening we got to tuck her into her new location at Butterfly 6.

Meanwhile, we got her nursery painted today! Or I should say Ed did most of the painting, but I was quick to cheer him on. I'm quick at most things I do in life, but painting is not one of those things! We're excited that it will be dry tomorrow so we can clean the carpet and start putting all of her things in there. We told her how nice it looked and how she will really love living here!

Tub time take two!

Happy Friday! I forgot to mention yesterday that it was five weeks since Emma was born (or would have been 34 weeks gestationally). Sometimes that is still hard to fathom! She's come a long way baby.

Emma got another bath today! This time the nurse turned me loose and told me to go for it, but she'd be right there if I needed help. Ohhh.... I was so nervous! I feel that it went pretty well. She wasn't too slippery to handle, it's just that it is hard to hold her with one hand and wash her with the other while trying to keep her from sliding. I am learning though! Like last week she absolutely loved it and was very calm and relaxed the whole time.

I did get to hear how her lungs have developed today though. She did not like getting her gown put on and boy did she tell me about it! It was honestly the loudest I have heard her cry, which is good because it shows lung development, but then again it only showed me what she will be able to do at home!

She also tried to drink from a bottle today for the first time, but by that time she was very tired and only drank a tiny, tiny bit. She pretty much fell asleep with the bottle in her mouth! Then the hiccups came. It's still very exhausting for Emma to stay awake and do things a full-term newborn would do, but she is building up her endurance. A few more weeks!

I am sure these bath pictures will bring a smile to your face as they do to ours!

The nurse asked another nurse to take a picture of Emma's backside. Don't ask me why!

Here she is getting her hair washed. Doesn't she look pretty darn relaxed?!

What-choo talking 'bout Willis?!

Cutie pie

Our little girl is really growing up! Today she was 3 pounds, 11 ounces. Wow!

Daddy finally got to spend a good amount of time with us this afternoon. It was so nice! We had the reclining couch once again, and Emma just snoozed while we held her.

Here are several pictures from today that we wanted to share!

Emma stretching out - that's one long baby!!


Emma peeking!


Here she reminds me of a singer holding a long note (hooooo-wooo-hoooooo!)


Is someone sneaking up behind me?


Raise the roof!

Biiiiig yawn!

Night night!

How many fingers am I holding up?

Just a brief note about Wednesday - I'm afraid I don't have much to say! Emma had a routine eye exam today to check for "retinopathy of prematurity," something that can effect preemies. I'm pleased to say that the doctors didn't find anything! They will check her again in 2-3 weeks as a standard practice.

I didn't get any pictures of Emma today, but I will do my best tomorrow. I also didn't get her weight today - boy am I slacking! She was pretty pooped out after the eye exam.

Good evening!

Tuesday pics

Emma has moved on to wearing fancy gowns now! She'll start wearing more clothes in the near future which will get us good use out of some of her preemie clothes. They want her to be able to keep her body temperature up with clothes and one blanket (and maybe a hat). She was doing pretty good with that today!

I think she looks like a little pink wiggle worm :)

Her weight today is 3 lbs., 8 oz. I can't believe how fast she's approaching four pounds! Here she is with daddy tonight:

In case you're wondering who Emma is rooting for in the World Series (though she is a Todd Helton fan!):

Another ounce

Hello to everyone on this sunny (at least in Portland!) Monday! I only took one picture of Emma today. Here she is bundled up and sleeping at noon. I hesitate to unbundle her and wake her up just for a diaper change and to check her temperature, but that has to happen every three hours!

Her weight today is up another ounce: 3 lbs., 7 oz.! She and I had some good snuggle time today. Otherwise, it's eat, sleep, grow; eat, sleep, grow...!

Picture time

Exciting news! Emma now weighs 3 lbs., 6 oz.! Yes, that's right, she is now a full pound above her birth weight. Woo hoo!! It's amazing how much different that pound makes her look.

Emma now eats 30 mL every three hours. As you'll see below she now has a green pacifier (instead of the previously seen purple one), and she took to it quite well today. Sometime this week she'll start getting a bottle to work on!

A picture is worth a thousand words, so instead of 8,000 words, here are cute pictures of Emma for your viewing enjoyment!

Hey daddy, am I big enough to play catch yet?! I'm a rightie, see?!?

On second thought, maybe a little nap first...

Come on guys, aren't you gonna hold me yet? Mom - put that camera down!

How do you spell s-w-e-e-t?

Shhh, I've got a secret to tell ya... I'm breaking outta this joint soon!

Did I hear the Keebler Elves are hiring?!

WHOA! This pacifier is HUGE!


Finally a look at Emma's feet in daddy's hand. For comparison I've attached an earlier picture from September 21st, a month ago!

Family day

Here's how Ed and I found Emma when we arrived today. The top was up on her isolette - she had been plenty warm so the nurse wanted to cool her down a bit. Over the next week she likely will have the top up all the time, which will be nice. It's much easier to interact with her - change her diaper, etc., with the top up! She is doing pretty good at maintaining her body temperature.

They are speeding up the time of how fast she receives her feedings. She is now getting fed over a half hour period, instead of what used to be an hour. This is so when she starts drinking from a bottle (which should start this week) she will get used to finishing it all in half an hour. Otherwise it sounds like it can take the babies the longest time to eat when they're learning!

There are several rocking chairs and recliners around the NICU available for when you sit with your baby. The big leather recliners are by far the most comfortable. Today Ed and I got the leather couch recliner! We held Emma for a long time skin-to-skin and just had quiet time for a couple of hours. It was great to sit there together as a family!

When it came time to put her back to bed, we spent quite a bit of time talking to her and playing with her. She was very responsive to us! She is becoming noticeably more alert when it comes to focus and eye contact.

Oh yes, and it was also time to eat again. It looked like she was trying to eat her wash cloth! Sometimes she looks like a baby bird, opening her mouth like "feed me, feed me!" A good sign I'm sure :)

So, here she is all ready to settle in after being properly swaddled. For the first time we felt like the nurse today actually showed us how to wrap the blanket for a baby burrito like they do so well!

Emma (and Mel hanging out in the back) say have a good Saturday night!

It's bath time!

Friday greetings! Emma has gained yet another ounce. She now weighs 3 lbs., 4.5 oz.!

Today the nurse said we would give Emma her first tub bath. I was so excited! Do you know what the bathtub was? One of those little plastic bins, you know the kind that they send you home from the hospital with all your free "goodies" (water pitcher, etc.) in! Naturally it was plenty big for her!

So the nurse filled the tub with some warm soapy water, and we put Emma in there. She never fussed and she really seemed to like the warm water! Of course she was one slippery little baby. The nurse held her and I washed her. Most of the time Emma had her eyes closed and was very relaxed. Then we wrapped her up and the nurse held her over the tub while I washed her hair. I was massaging the shampoo in very gently (they have soft heads you know!), and the nurse said "Mama is too gentle!" So she told me I could use my fingertips a little more to wash her head.

She handed her to me when her hair was rinsed and I put her back in her bed, which meanwhile had been heated with the heat lamp on her raised isolette lid. It felt really toasty! Here are the first two pictures back in her bed, peeking out. I didn't get any pictures of her in the tub because the nurse and I had our hands full!

Here is a later picture after I had fluffed her hair all up. She was very comfy after her bath in her warm bed! So cute!



You may notice in the pictures that she doesn't have the feeding tube in her nose. Well, that's because right before her bath I saw her hand waving around with something in it. She had pulled the tube right out of her nose! The nurse said she would just replace it after the bath. Naturally the tube going back in her nose can't be a comfortable thing. When she was ready to insert it, she dropped some sugar water into Emma's mouth! Emma stopped fussing for a minute while she finished. I said what is that? She said studies show that sugar water can help take your mind off of pain for three minutes. Interesting! I thought of Mary Poppins - just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down - but it's not quite the same thing!

Anyway, I feel like I learn something new each day. More to learn tomorrow!