"She's having an excellent day!"- Day 10

Dresser filled w/ a million onesies!

Crib/Changing table minus her bedding

Comfiest.Rocking.Chair.Ever.

Yet to be completed bookshelf

Her fancy clothes to date. Sharing a closet w/ dad..how fast will his stuff get pushed out?!

Sorry this is about 8 hours late!! Yesterday I have to admit that I pushed myself to do too much, too soon. I completely forget (its easier than you think!) that I had major surgery 10 days ago and have taken nothing for pain at all in about a week. I went every 3 hours to Avery's touch times and then did about 6 things in between each touch time, including taking Bowie to Roanoke for his vet appt. When I got home at 7:30, I had planned to pump and go right back up to the hospital for her 8:30 touch time/kangaroo care. My husband, seeing that I couldn't even stay awake to pump barely, was gracious enough to not only call the NICU and arrange for me to kangaroo at 11:30, but told me to go sleep and he would drive me to the hospital when we were ready and rested. Bless that man! The 2 1/2 hours were exactly what I needed- kinda like a cup of coffee : ) Man, I miss coffee! I haven't had a cup since April. I wonder how weird it's going to be to re-introduce everything I haven't been able to have since being pregnant. Since I have about 16, 428 bottles of breastmilk frozen and baby girl is only getting 12 cc's every 3 hours, I'm toying with the idea of having a few cold beers tonight (maybe some pizza??) while Hubby watches the Ranger game and Kate and I cackle the night away. That's right, I'm having my first visitor @ home tonight, and I'm so excited! I've forgotten (quite literally) what's its like to have human interaction that doesn't involve my baby. Which is not to say that I don't love talking about her every moment I can... I completely do. I can yammer about this kid for hours, and all she does is eat, sleep and now POOP! But it will be nice to see my friend and slowly re-introduce myself to a few hours that aren't NICU related. 

Anyway, she was a little wriggle worm when we were snuggling last time. The nurses on duty had literally pulled rocking chairs into a circle and were practically yelling/laughing about the weirdest things while we were there... it irritated CJ so much he went and slept in the waiting room. I mean, this is supposed to be a restful time for the babies! Mom was able to tune the birds out and just focus on her sweet girl. I got to kiss her head about a billion times and caress her soft cheeks. Her skin is the best thing I've ever felt! We got home about 1 and went right to bed. I slept so good! (The best you can in 3 hour intervals anyway)

Back to our bebe's "excellent day"...this little lady had 2 (count em'...2!!) poopy diapers during the night!! 

8:30 AM- no residuals! At this time she had been taking 9 cc's like a champ. Dad got to change her diaper and we got some good face time with her. I don't know why, but I want to eat her up more in the morning time... she's still sleepy and yawning, but trying so hard to wake up. I just imagine her in her crib at home and me going in to wake her up, singing the "Wake Up/Good Morning" song to her and scooping her up into the biggest baby bear hug imaginable. I wish I knew what day she was coming home so I could make some sort of countdown calendar and say, "Only ___ More Days till our Babe Comes Home!!" All in God's time : )

11:30 AM- no residuals again (woohooo!) and so they upped her feedings to 12 cc's. They now put the syringe (which is quite large marge!) into an automatic dispenser that feeds her this amount over a 30 min period. I like this A LOT more as I feel it lets her little digestive tract not be overloaded all at once. They also changed her PICC line dressing (it had old blood in the bandage from when they originally put it in) so she is fresh and clean in the arm area. 

2:30 PM- only trace amount of residuals... which is AMAZE since they upped her feedings and actually told us they expected to get more back from her since it was a signicantly larger amount than she was used to. However, our girl is SuperBaby and surprised Mom and Dad by digesting everything! She also had a very small amount of poop in her diaper. I was shocked and so happy. She was really alert at this touch time, quiet, but just looking around and taking everything in. It melts me when she looks me right in the eye. I can't wait till she is big and we can be best friends! (I know this will last only until she about 10-12 and then I'll be the "uncool" mom and she'll hate that I'm alive to embarrass her... I'm soaking up this 9 years and 50 weeks while I can!!)

5:30 PM- This time she really pooped! We weren't there for this touch time, but always call to check on her. She also had no residuals! This is when Nurse Diane told CJ, "She's just having an excellent day!!" Well, we praise the Lord for that kind of news : )

8:30 PM- No residuals and no poop. I imagine she is fast asleep but waiting on Mom to come up and hold her. I hope somehow she looks forward to these times as much as I do.

11:30 PM- No residuals and no poop again. We did weigh her and she is up to 3 lbs 8 oz!! They were taking pictures of all the NICU babies with Halloween garb on to put in the nursery so I was fully excited to see Avery's pictures once they had taken them. This was our snuggle time and it's never long enough. I was told that the nurses would check with the doctors today and ask if I could hold her 2x a day now that she is over 1500 grams. Once kangaroo (skin to skin) and the other time would be with her swaddled in a blanket, but would allow us to look at her face to face, not in the isolette. Can I possibly tell you how overjoyed that would make me??? Something to definitely look forward to.

It looks like there was a pink explosion in our nursery, right?? I never thought I would overtly "girly" up our baby's nursery, but I have to say, I love looking in there and seeing everything so feminine and dainty ; ) I can't wait to get everything situated and put away/put together and for the time when I can sit back, kick my feet up in the amazingly comfortable rocking chair (THANK YOU MOM!!) and say, "It's done and its time to bring our baby home." I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that will be the best day of my life! 

While I was in the hospital and Avery's bowels were on the fritz, I kept thinking about this one song that I used to love about 8 years ago by a Christian singer named Jaci Velasquez. The lyrics of this particular song that kept coming into my head were "I get on my knees, there I am before the Love, that changes me, See I don't know how, But there's power, when I'm on my knees".  I literally haven't heard this song in as much time, but I so loved it. I dropped to my knees several times while in the hospital, begging the Lord to work in Avery's favor so that surgery and the contrast X-ray and transferring hospitals was not something we would have to explore. Well, fast forward to yesterday (and several miracles later!) when CJ and I came home from one of her touch times. CJ has taken to leaving the radio on for Bowie while we are out. We walked in and I heard it... that song. Those words. My heart stopped. I didn't say anything to my husband but after all this time never hearing that song and me having the lyrics on my heart and then.... it was overwhelming. A warm feeling came over me and I felt God so deeply in that moment. It was like a confirmation that He is listening and answering prayers. He is AWESOME and continues to daily bless our family and heal our child.  I know there are little ways that God lets us know He is here, and I love that I was able to experience that. 

Let's give God a big High Five and a huge THANK YOU for all He's doing in Baby Girl's life and body. We continue to pray for more poop/pee so that her jaundice levels will continue to drop. We pray that she will keep gaining healthy weight (as opposed to water weight) so that she is able to get big and strong. Let's pray that she tolerates these 12 cc's of milk and digests all of it to the nourishment of her body and that when the doctors increase her feeding, she will also be able to digest all of that successfully. As always, we banish all infections from her growing body in Jesus' name! Our healthy girl needs to stay healthy : ) I have faith it's all uphill from here!

Thanks for letting me be a day late with this one. I'm going to go visit the beeb right now with Dad and then come home and work on the current day (Thursday). Thank you also for reading and praying and sending us positive thoughts! xox