Day 21- Happy 3 Week Old Baby Day! (34 Wk Gestational Age)

Our Big Girl!!

She had such an awesome day again! I cannot believe its been 3 weeks since she was born. It has flown by. Avery is such a blessing to us and we are so thankful we are at where we are at.... and its all because of God's grace and mercy. Church was amazing today, and I'll get to that a little later. On to our 3 week old princess!!

• Her residuals were as follows at every touch time: 2 cc's, 3 cc's, 1/2 cc, 3 cc's & 1.5 cc's. All good amounts that were fed back to her! She's doing really good at digesting all Mama's breastmilk and it still depends on which side she's laying on how many residual cc's we get. Back, right side, tummy = good, left side = no good. But she has to rotate so her big head stays pretty : )
• She pooped 2x today, and had just a little bit in every other diaper. Like she has something brewing basically ; ) Praise the Lord for poop!
• Mom and Dad gave her a bath this morning all by ourselves! She was a little more fussy than last time, but did well. Dad held her while Mom washed her.  She loved having her hair washed!! Very calm and zen when we were doing this. Note to self to remember! She was sucking her hands after this, so I'm pretty sure she was hungry and wanted to eat. Unfortunately, they won't feed her by mouth after a bath as this is too taxing for them. She was so alert @ this time and it was neat to just watch and talk to her. 
• She took 15 cc's by bottle @ 2:30 and then promptly conked out after. When we fed her at 8:30, she took 21 cc's out of 35!! Her biggest hurdle is that she falls asleep so fast once she starts eating. If we could keep the bugger awake, I feel very confident she would finish the bottle. Which she needs to do before they'll let her attempt more bottles at other feeding times. Can we pray that she keeps eating more and more and stays awake to eat so she can finish her bottles and get to feed from more bottles? I would really appreciate this prayer!! I have so much faith this is in the cards in the near future. 
• She is up to just over 3 lbs 14 oz! 2 more oz Baby girl and we'll be in the 4 pound range! and only 40 more grams until she can move into an open air crib. This will be at the top of our prayer request list in addition to the feeding by bottle. I can see how big she is getting and it makes me so happy. When I'm holding her I can feel that she is heavier. What a great and wonderful blessing!

I'm not sure my new pumping schedule is really that much better than my old schedule. While it is easier to only pump every 4 hours, it actually starts to by uncomfortable around the 2 hour mark. And I went about 4 and half hours during the night without pumping and I woke up way before that feeling like maybe I was having a severe muscle cramp around my heart/upper neck area. So is it really more beneficial to wait the 4 hours in between? Only time and uncomfortable boobs will tell. I would love to say that I enjoyed the 4.5 hours of contiguous sleep, but in actuality, it felt the exact same as 2.5- Maybe in a few weeks I can push it out to 5 or 6 hours at night. One can dream!

In church today we started on a series called "In the Zone". Basically the message was that when you are "in the zone", you aren't concerned about the -ings: earning, partying,etc. Rather, in the zone, you are recognizing that Jesus/God is the Blesser, you are being blessed, so that you can go out to be a blessing to others. The pastor talked about some things that would signify you are "in the zone"... and I have to tell you that I think I am. For truly maybe the first time in my adult life. What an extraordinary feeling that is! I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am blessed. Welcome to my blog and my life! If you can't see how blessed we are, then grab your glasses! But really this message spoke to me because since all this with Avery began and I have been drawn more near to God than ever before, I literally feel His blessings. I can't explain this... I just know that its true. Kinda like I know that my feet are attached to my legs. It's just the undeniable truth of the matter. And I know that I don't deserve all these blessings. I am certainly humbled by them. But the abundance of blessings that God has poured out on our lives, on our little girl, has made me actually yearn to be a blessing to other people. And in this way, I think I am starting to know what "in the zone" feels like. It's unnecessary to list or mention the things that I/we have started to do in order to bless other people. A lot of the time, I hope that I bless others in ways I will never know about. Maybe that's the best kind? But I want to take a more active role in giving back to the Lord for all He's done for us. As soon as Avery gets out of the hospital, I feel called to finally join the church we've been going to and find a small group that fits us. We also want to start getting involved in outreach programs or help in whatever ways we can. I pray that this goal stays so bright in our lives and we always remember that the Lord has given us so much. 

I've also been thinking a lot about the funny ways that God works. Would I ever wish for my daughter to be born early? Obviously not. We've asked her (and expected her) to do so much already that she shouldn't have to yet. If she was still in my belly, she would be in between 4-5 pounds and contentedly happy to still be swimming in amniotic fluid. BUT.... if she was still in my belly, I wouldn't get 2 bonus months to be her mom. I wouldn't know that my child is a fighter. I wouldn't get to feel the overwhelming, unadulterated joy every single day that I've had for 3 weeks that my baby is healthy and happy and can accomplish anything because Jesus is on her side. If my baby had been a term baby, I would probably never had started this blog. I wouldn't have come so deeply into my faith. I wouldn't have had to cry out to God, on my knees, and I wouldn't have had to put my trust, all of it, into the Lord and know that He would take care of her so perfectly. And so for that, I am glad that my daughter was born early. She is blessed, and she is already a blessing to me. Avery is IN THE ZONE!!

Let's give thanks for the big work God is doing every day! Continued prayers for her healthy weight gain, that her labs come back good tomorrow, that she remains sickness free and that her tummy keeps working so beautifully! I think the doctor will probably up her feedings tomorrow (amount wise) b/c she is gaining weight, so if we could pray that she tolerates and digests all of that amount, no matter what it is, that'd be awesome! Absorb and give back no residuals, sweet girl! 

Hope everyone has a great week! xox