Double Digits!

Bailey has hit the double digit mark; she is 10 pounds today! I can't believe it. She's also 21 and 3/4 inches long! Last week she was officially four months old. It's funny to think about because if she would have been born on her original due date, she would be two months old tomorrow. There are so many different time periods to keep track of with her--how old she really is, how old she should be, how long she's been home, and luckily I don't have to keep track of how long she's been in the hospital anymore. I guess that most of the things will be checked according to her original due date, including her immunization shots which she received a bunch of today. So needless to say, today has been a super fun day. She actually hasn't been that bad, just way fussier than normal. She loves to be held today, but only when I'm standing up. The other thing that she loves is to look at herself in the bathroom mirror, so I've been standing a lot in the bathroom today. Right now I really can't complain because she's sound asleep until her last dosage of medicine wears off. So to make good use of this time, I'm posting this momentous occasion. This is a picture of one of her calmer moments from today.

The other momentous occasion around our house is that yesterday marked three years that we've been married. It's weird to think about because some days it seems like it's flown by and others it seems like it's been a really long time. So many things have happened since we've been married. Brian and I went out for a delicious dinner by the beach. He bought me the biggest pot of hydrangea flowers because I love them. He also bought me some new flip flops because the third anniversary is the year of leather (for all of you out there who didn't know that, now you do). He is extremely thoughtful, kind, and generous, and really into fun details like that. I thought the third year was nylon/polyester because I got him a golf shirt. No matter what I do, Brian will always win in the present department, but I don't mind.

Here are just some more pictures that I've taken recently:

When she wakes up for the second time in the morning, she is usually all smiles. I've been trying to get a good picture of her all happy, but it's hard because she moves so much.

This was a day at the beach. She already loves it just like her mom!

She loves her tummy. I promise when I first put her on her tummy for play time she's awake, but she always falls asleep. I can't wait until she can sleep on her stomach because she sleeps so peacefully and I think it's so cute with her butt up in the air.

Summer's Here!

Since today was the last day of school for my school, today is technically (according to the life of a teacher) the first day of summer. Although, this year it doesn't have quite the same feeling. Since I haven't been teaching for the past four months, I don't feel the same anticipation, excitiment, and exhaustion that I normally do at the end of a school year. I am excited though that all of my family is officially done with teaching for the year, so now I can hang out with them!

On a slightly different note: I will be forever grateful to my sister Tera this year because she has been "me" at school. Tera took over all of my classes once I had Bailey. Having your sister as your sub is the best situation ever. I didn't really have to worry about my kids because I knew that Tera was taking care of them. I know that she had a super tough job to take over with my ASB classes, but she jumped right in and went to work. I know that the kids loved her too. One student loved her so much, he even wrote a marriage proposal to Tera on the board on the last day of school. That is why I love teaching middle school.

Today my mom and I went on a walk with the dogs and Bailey. Once my dog Doby gets tired, he lays down on the ground and insists on being picked up. Now that I push a stroller on my walks, carrying Doby isn't really an option when he gets tired. So today when he decided that he was done with the walk only 10 minutes into it, we put him on the stroller. My BOB stroller (it's my favorite baby item that I own) has a little ledge in front of where I put the car seat. I'm sure that it's not made to hold tired dogs, but it worked perfectly! For the rest of our walk, Doby was perfectly content just sitting and observing everything from his ledge on the stroller. I'll have to take a picture of it next time so you can see how funny it looks. Here are some funny pictures that illustrate how Doby feels about his new little sister. He thinks that when we lay out a blanket, that we're laying it out for him to snuggle on. When we take a family picture, he wants to be a part of it. I don't think he really understands what exactly Bailey is yet; most days he just ignores her. But the times that he does notice her, I'm pretty sure he thinks that he's just like she is and deserves every bit of attention too. It's really funny to watch how he interacts with her.

Happy Father's Day

Before I go upstairs and feed Bailey for the last time today, I just wanted to give Brian a shout out on Father's Day. He is such a good dad and he loves Bailey so much. It's really fun to watch him interact with her. I'm so lucky that I have a wonderful dad and that I'm married to a guy who is a fabulous dad too! I hope that everyone had a great day--especially all those dads out there!

Now that we've switched over to this blog site, I hope that everything will be a lot easier for everyone to access. I could just stay up all night long looking and admiring everyone's blogs, but I really need to go to bed.

Homecoming

When Bailey came home she weighed 5 pounds 4 ounces and was 19 inches long. She gained just over two pounds in the hospital and grew three inches. The doctors and nurses said that she would grow so much better at home, but I was a little doubtful. I should know by now to always trust the doctors. From Thursday to Tuesday she gained six ounces. Nurse Kathy came to the house every Tuesday for the first month at home. She came just to make sure that Bailey was growing and that mom and dad weren't freaking out. At her first visit, Bailey weighed 5 pounds 10 ounces. I was truly amazed that she had gained an ounce a day! It was also really comforting to have Kathy come and visit, so I still felt some connection to the hospital and she was good company. At her next visit she weighed 6 pounds 3 ounces! She had crossed that big 6 pound barrier; she had gained exactly three pounds since she was born--in only 9 weeks. At her final visit on April 29th, Bailey weighed 6 pounds 11 ounces--she was almost 7 pounds! It was amazing that she kept growing at the ounce a day rate. I was sad that it was Kathy's last visit, but she said that Bailey was doing so well that she didn't have to come check on us.

We also had a mini celebration on April 27th because that was her original due date

What a Roller Coaster!

Bailey is five weeks old this week--and what a week it's been! This week has validated this statement for me this week: The life of a preemie is a roller coaster. What a roller coaster this week has been. On Wednesday we found out that Bailey was having some trouble; there were several options that were possible causes for her problems. They had to stop her feedings entirely and hook her back up to an IV. The doctors knew there was some type of infection inside of her, they just weren't sure where it was or what type of infection it was either. They had to take all types of tests and xrays every six hours. It was quite a set back for us because on Tuesday there was talk of taking her feeding tube out and eating entirely from the bottle--that's a huge step for preemies. So to go from doing really well on Tuesday to we're not sure what's wrong with your baby on Wednesday was very upsetting to say the least. My mom and I spent most of the day down at the hospital with Bailey to help calm her down. She didn't like being all hooked up again and they couldn't wrap her up like a little burrito. Once I held her, she was able to calm down and fall right asleep (it also helped to calm me down too). On Wednesday night, Brian and my dad came down to the hospital to give her a blessing. It made me feel much better. Thursday morning when my mom and I went to the hospital, we were greeted with a surprise--Bailey was doing much better and she had all of her tubes taken out. It was the first time that we'd seen her face without any tubes! She is so cute! The doctors and nurses all said she was doing much better and they were able to identify her infection. We were also moved from the big nursery to a "private suite" down the hall to make sure that none of the other babies get the infection. It's much more peaceful in her new room where there's only one other baby, one nurse, and a lot less noise. On Thursday and Friday, my mom and I spent most of the day in Bailey's room just chatting with the nurse. The week has ended on a really good note. They're going to start her feeding again today, but really slowly. So they'll work on getting her back up to where she was on Tuesday. I'm very glad that this week is over and I'm optimistic for the future. I'm so grateful for all of the doctors and nurses who have helped Bailey this week. They are so wonderful and loving to my little girl and they also help me too. Let's all hope for a great week number six next week!

One Month Old

I can't believe it! Bailey is one month old today. It's gone by so quickly, but at the same time so slow--if that makes any sense. So quickly in the fact that this past month has been the craziest month of my life with so many unexpected things going on. Every day I am learning more and more as I spend more time at the hospital watching Bailey progress. I almost feel like I can hold my own in a medical conversation with the nurses now. But it's also been the slowest month of my life because she's still in the hospital. Some days seem to drag by, but when I stop and think about it I realize that another week has gone by.

The exciting news for me is that I started driving this week...unsupervised. I was really looking forward to this time so I could drive down whenever I wanted to. But to be honest, it's been a little boring doing everything by myself.

Last Saturday was the baby shower and it was a ton of fun. I got some of the cutest and smallest outfits that you'll ever see. I am so excited to get Bailey home and play dress up. Having a girl is definitely a dream come true for me because I can hardly restrain myself from buying every pink, girly item of clothing that I walk by. I can just picture Bailey in all of the adorable outfits that everyone gave us. It was also a really fun day because my Grandma came to the shower and then after we went down to see Bailey. My Grandma was so excited to finally meet and hold Bailey--my Grandma (and my Great Grandma and my Great Great Grandma) is why we chose Mae as Bailey's middle name. While we were visiting Bailey on Saturday, we totally broke the hospital's rules and snuck my mom in while my grandma was in and took a four generation picture. (I would post it but we took it on my Grandma's camera) They are very strict on only two visitors for each baby, but I guess the nurses realized how momentous the occasion really was. It's always fun for me to see my family members with Bailey.

WARNING TO BOY READERS FOR THIS NEXT SECTION: THE TOPIC IS NURSING
Yesterday was a big day for both Bailey and me because we started learning how to nurse. Notice that I said that WE both learned because it is definitely a learning process for both of us. Thank goodness for the kind and super sweet nurses that take care of Bailey and help me with anything and everything. Nurse Kathy helped me with my first attempt at nursing yesterday. For only being 34 weeks old, they say that Bailey is doing really well. The 5-10 minutes of "nursing" mostly consists of Bailey sitting there with her mouth open, but no action going on. The best and strangest part about the whole experience is that they put us in a little room to try for the first time. After Kathy showed me how to do everything and reassured me that everything would be just fine, she closed the door and left me and Bailey all alone. That was the first time that I had been alone with my baby girl. It was both exciting and scary at the same time.

To all the moms out there: Each day brings me a new appreciation for everything that moms do for their children.

NEWS ALERT: Brian just came home and told me that Bailey weighs four pounds!!! That's just a few ounces for most people/babies, but a giant step for preemies.

First Blog Ever

Well, here's to my first blog ever written--whether it be good or bad. I'm writing this mostly so Brian will stop asking me if I've blogged today; I also aim to write a blog like my sister-in-law Sam. I also blog because I happen to have a little bit of time on my hands.

My little Bailey is three weeks old today!!! Yeah for Bailey! Every time that a doctor walks by while I'm at the hospital, he/she says that Bailey is doing really great. The most recent update is that they've increased her caffeine dosage to hopefully help decrease her apnea events. I hope that they're right because when she stops breathing, her mom's heart stops beating momentarily. It's only for a brief moment, but it's enough to scare me to death. Seeing your little baby turn blue is not something that I ever imagine that I'd have to experience on a daily basis. But her apnea really has been getting better over the past few days, so I'm keeping a positive outlook. If they keep increasing her caffeine dosage, I'm afraid that she'll come home addicted to DC (Diet Coke to those who don't know our family lingo) like the rest of my family.
Bailey is a very peaceful baby. She loves to sleep and will occasionally open her eyes and check out her new world. Her big time tricks right now are blinking, yawning, wiggling her long, but ultra tiny fingers, and making a random little squeak every now and then. My favorite thing is when I hold her and she snuggles right up to me. I can hardly wait until she comes home and we can snuggle as much as she wants--although I'm sure that as soon as she comes home her sleeping phase will change to a crying phase. She loves meeting all the members of her family and is super excited to meet Auntie Keri on Thursday!

Well, I've got to go and get ready for my big outing to the hospital today. I'll tell Bailey that everyone says, "Hi!"