Emma Update

Emma is doing GREAT! We had our first visit from the home health nurse yesterday and our little piggy is now weighing in at a whopping 7 pounds! She already seems so much bigger than when she was born. This week Emma will have her eyes checked (preemies can have problems with their vision after exposure of oxygen on their underdeveloped blood vessels). She will also see her pediatrician and get a schedule for RSV antibodies that will protect her from RSV (more later). We also have to decide when I will return to work and when Emma will start daycare, something I'm not looking forward to.

Thanks for lending us this swing Aunt Kiley, it works like a charm!

Looks who's awake!

Playing with my mommy

sleeping off the fun!

"where's my bottle!"

one step closer...

..to completing Emma's room. I finally ordered her bedding when she was 3 weeks old! In my defense I should still have 2-4 weeks left :) There really is no rush. She sleeps in our room in a pack'n play where we can see her! I think it is almost as cute as she is!

The view from the outside (the ruffles hooked me)

A surprise on the inside!

Emma's hospital pictures

Thanks to Heidi for the cute handmade headband and Yoannis for the pretty pink sleeper!  Click here!

Emma is home!

After a long 3 weeks, Emma is home!!  Thursday night Dan, Emma and I did "family rooming-in" otherwise known as our "supervised trial run."  The three of us spent our first night together in a hospital room next to the NICU. This allowed us to care for Emma without monitors but with doctors and nurses just down the hall.  It was the best place for us during our first night.  Dan and I took turns sleeping so we could keep watch over Emma.  She squeals in her sleep which scares us and at other times she is so still which scares us too.  Last night I was brave enough to sleep for about and hour during my watch.  Actually, I'm not sure if it was bravery or pure exhaustion!  Here are some pics from our big day!  

Notices on the wall

The very posh "family rooming-in" sweet

Dan and Emma watching the game together

They were both happy when the Giants won

Emma on the car ride home (she didn't wake up)

Dan driving us home in the rain

Home sweet home

The big sister 

We are so thankful that Emma is healthy and home!  Thank you for all the well wishes!!  She is the most amazing and scary thing I've ever laid eyes on!

On the home stretch!

In lieu of a picture of Miss Emma, I will say that if I had posted a picture from today you would see her beautiful face sans the feeding tube (yeah!). It was removed Wednesday night, and it was one of the happiest moments of my life. It seems Emma's feeding "light switch" has been flipped into the "on" position and our girl can eat! As of Wed night she was weighing in at 6lb, 6.5 ounces. I don't want to jinx myself, but I will say that we are getting very close to bringing baby home.

The Milk Challenge

To decipher the age old "which came first the chicken or the egg" mystery, Emma will be given breast milk sometime in the coming days. This little experiment will help us figure out whether the milk made her sick or if her sickness made her spit up the milk. If she gets sick again we know it is an allergy and if not, it was a bug. It feels very wrong for a mommy to be experimenting on her baby that way. I'm really praying it was a stomach bug because the formula she is on is so stinky. I almost feel like a bad mom when feeding it to her!

Stomach Bug?

Just a quick update on Emma's tummy. Recent events are leading us to believe that Emma may have had a stomach bug. Along with Dan and I coming down with a stomach virus, Emma's white blood cell count was up from 1% to 12% indicating that her body was fighting something. She is no longer vomiting and seems to be feeling much better. She has even increased the amount of bottles she is taking! She had her first bath Monday morning at 4:30 am and I was told she L-O-V-E-D it! We have been truly blessed with countless answered prayers since Emma's birth. She continues to amaze me with her resilience! We worked on her room this weekend and can't wait to show it to her!

Will post later today. I've had a couple of requests for more pictures. My sister said that the pic below of Dan holding Emma reminds her of images of great apes holding kittens in captivity. I thought that was hysterical. Dan....not so much :)