Hope is 1 Month Old Today!

It is hard to believe that Hope has been a part of our family for one month. We can't imagine our family without her. She has definitely blessed us in so many ways. Hope has now been home with us for 12 days. In those 12 days she has continued to thrive. She is eating well and is up to 50 cc's per feeding. She is also developing a routine as far as sleep is concerned. She goes to bed at around 11:00pm each night and wakes up sometime around 3:00am to eat and then again around 7:00am. She is also awake more throughout the day. I think she enjoys watching her sister and brother as they play and act crazy. Hope goes to the doctor again tomorrow. Hopefully, we will have another good report! Thank you for continuing to think about our family. We really appreciate it!

6th Day at Home

Hope had her doctor's appointment today. She is doing wonderful. Her weight is just under 6lbs 1oz. She has gained over 8oz since she has been home. She continues to gain strength every day. Hope is scheduled for another appointment next week. Even though she is doing great, the doctor continues to warn us to be very careful and cautious. He warns that germs are all around. If a baby is under two months and gets sick, the baby has to be admitted to the hospital because they are too young for medicine.

We often wonder if we are being too cautious. Then we remember how hard it was for our family and little girl to be at the hospital. We KNOW that we do not want to be back in the hospital.

Today Brent made a visit back to the NIM/NICU unit. We have some friends that are in the NIM unit. Their son, Cameron, took Hope's spot in the NIM when she left (the actual spot). We realize what a toll the hospital can take on you and a what friendly visit can do for your spirit. We also know another couple that is in the NICU. He has been e-mailing us with questions. It does feel good to be able to help and support these two families.

Hope you enjoy the pictures. We will update soon.

Hope's 3rd Day at Home

What a wonderful Saturday for us! This is the first Saturday in 6 weeks that we didn't have to spend time at the hospital. What a joy it is to just be home spending time together - doing puzzles, playing games, reading books and cuddling Hope. We definitely couldn't ask for anything more. Hope continues to do great here at home. She is eating well, napping well and making her big brother and big sister (and mom and dad too!) fall even more in love with her. On Tuesday Hope has her first appointment with our pediatrician. It will be neat to see if she has continued to gain weight and to get Dr. Henderson's impression of her.

2nd Day at Home

The second day was so great that we forgot to update the blog. How weird not to go to the hospital, for Jen to be able to go to Ryann's Valentine Party, to spend more than 1 hour as a family, and to be able to watch the Olympics as a family. These things we took for granted just 2 months ago ... now we live for them. Who could have asked for a better birthday gift.

Hope had a wonderful day! She ate and slept like she has been doing it since day 1. The kids are very proud of her and are enjoying every minute with her. They are a tremendous help when it comes to advice and taking care of her. Hope feeds every 3 hours so this schedule is a little hard. Brent has been doing the 1:00 & 4:00 am feedings since he had this time off. Jen is doing the 7:00 so Brent can sleep in. Starting Monday Jen will be the lady of the night.

This is a picture from when we left the hospital. The blanket is the same one that Brent went home in when he was born.

Hope's 21st Day / 1st Day at Home

Hope has ended her stay at the hospital!!! She is now home and we have a complete family. What a great day for us. Hope came home on her 21st day -- just liker her mom. We all are glad to have Hope home. Camden has brought out a lot of things to show his little sister. Ryann is being a great sister also. Unfortunately, both kids are under the weather so they can not get very close to Hope. We have created a germ free room that the kids are not allowed in and this is the place that Hope sleeps.

We will continue to do a daily blog through the weekend. After the weekend, we will try to update weekly.

We want to thank everyone for their great support! Through this difficult time, friends and family have made this journey so much easier. We still wonder how we could have ever done this without the support.

Hope's 20th Day

It was another good day for Hope! She had the chance to hang out with her dad all day due to the fact that mom stayed home with Ryann, who was not feeling well. Hope and her dad had a lot of fun spending such quality time together. She now weighs 5 pounds and 8 ounces, and continues to improve her eating. Each day she seems to have longer periods of being awake. Tonight she was moved to room 3 in NIM due to the number of babies as well as nursing staff.

Hope's 19th Day

It has been another great day for Hope. She seems to be getting the hang of eating. She did a nice job all day today with her feedings. She nursed really well at one feeding, and took the remainder of her feedings today from a bottle. She continues to work on her pacing. She seems to either eat too quickly or eat at an extremely slow rate. She also has a tendency to be really worn out at some of her middle of the night feedings. This is when the decision is made for her to be tube fed. We are hoping that we can get through the night tonight without the need for any tube feedings!