She's Two Weeks Old!

2 Weeks Old!

Time flies when you are having fun! :) In some ways it seems like the past two weeks have flown by...but then at the same time it seems like Lydia has been here a lot longer than two weeks! None the less...we would not trade the last two weeks for anything! She is such a good baby girl, and we are so thankful for her! We can already see changes in her! She is a little more alert when she eats and is even waking herself up some to eat! She is really peaceful and laid back which is really nice. We are hoping she stays that way!!

Our new little family

We had a pretty eventful last few days. Jeff went back to work on Thursday and Granna (Mom) came down to stay with me and help me out. She was a HUGE help! We loved having her around and hope that she comes back to visit soon! Lydia misses her already! :) Uncle Craig and Heather came down Thursday afternoon and spent the evening with us. They brought Lydia the cutest Easter basket with a big bunny and some very cute clothes.

Uncle Craig and Heather with her Easter basket full of goodies

Friday Lydia got to meet some more new friends! Joe, Hannah, and Mrs. Patty came by Friday afternoon and "Aunt" Cassie came by Friday night. She was so excited about meeting everyone she passed out both times! :) Jeff and I went out to eat Friday night and Granna stayed with Lydia. It was nice to get out of the house for a little bit. Amazing how all our conversations seemed to be about her though!

Saturday we had more visitors! Pops and Reedee came by to get some lovin' from Lydia. They finally got to see her awake! :) My dad, Nancy and JoJo also came over in the afternoon and got to see her. They brought her some clothes to add to her stash! Can't wait for her to be able to start wearing them! Then her "Aunt" Cassie and "Aunt" Mollie came by to visit for a little bit. And then...Nena K, PaPa T, and Great Grandma Janie came over! It was quite an eventful day!

She passed out after all the company left tonight!

First Outing!

This is how she spends most of the day!

We had our first doctor's appointment today and it went really well! She weighs 5 pounds 1 ounce and measured at 18 1/2 inches long. He said that she did not look jaundice, so her laying in the sun has helped! :) He told us that her being out of the hospital and not having to be put on a ventilator or oxygen when she was born is really a miracle! We are so thankful that she is doing well and are praying that she continues to grow and becomes stronger!

She loves the car seat!

She is starting to eat really well and become a little bit more alert. She is trying to hold her head up and looks around when she is awake. She is just too cute! We gave her her first bath Monday night and she did not like it one bit! Poor girl...she just cried and cried and cried! It was pretty pitiful!! When it was all over, Daddy got her all wrapped up in her towel and she was perfectly content! :) We'll see how the next one goes! We know that there will come a day when she will beg to stay in the bath! :)

Happy Easter!!

WE'RE HOME!!

We were able to come home today with our baby girl! :) It is so great to finally be home with her. We've had a good day...she is continuing to eat well and of of course she is still sleeping like crazy! We have to wake her to eat every four hours and she is ready to go back down after about 40-50 minutes. That will surely change in the future though! Saturday night when they weighed her, she was up to 4 pounds 14 ounces! That is up 1 ounce from her birth weight! We were really happy to hear that she was gaining weight.

Friday was her "One Week Birthday"! We spent most of the day sun tanning! :) The nurse said that it would help with her jaundice. She LOVED it!

The Easter Bunny came to visit Lydia!

The NICU nurses made Easter shirts for the babies!

Just Waiting...

In her outfit from Uncle Craig and Heather...she LOVED it!

Not much has changed since the last post...but thought we would put some new pictures on here! :) Lydia is still doing well. We started to feed her with a bottle and she is really doing a good job with it. She just wears out so quickly! Takes all the energy that she has to drink it. They took the feeding tube out of her nose that went to her tummy this afternoon, and we are praying that they don't have to put it back in!

Yesterday she passed her "Car Seat Test"! We were so happy! She had to pass in order to be able to go home. One step closer! She had to sit in the car seat for 1 1/2 hours and her levels had to stay good. She did GREAT!

She looked so TINY in that big ol' car seat!

We are still making it here at the hospital. We are ready to be home though and to get into a routine. It will be a new and different routine, but we are ready! We are falling more and more in love with her everyday! It's amazing how much love we have for her!

Granna came to keep us company while Jeff went to work!

She loves her Daddy!

Mommy's Little Girl

We're Back!

Yesterday we were told to go home and pack our bags...and we moved back in the hospital! But this time Lydia is in the room with us! We are still in NICU, but it's a stepdown room. We change her diaper, take her temperature and feed her. They are still monitoring her...but it's one step closer to going home! We are still not sure how long she will be here, but we will be with her until she goes home.

They took out her IV yesterday and she is eating really well! All she is doing right now is eating and sleeping. She looks so peaceful when she is sleeping...can not keep our eyes off of her. :) They took her out of her isolet and put her in an open crib and so far she has done well. They also took her out from under the "blue light" and her biliruben levels were down this morning! She is doing really good and we are just waiting on her to get a little bit stronger. She is finally able to wear clothes...we think that she looks even cuter in clothes!

We are doing good. This is all really overwhelming and starting to wear on us physically, emotionally, and mentally, but we know that God will not put more on us than we can take. We are leaning and trusting on Him.

3 Days Old

Lydia continues to do well! We were able to hold her today when she had "lunch"! We did not want to put her down! :) Hopefully in the coming days we will get to hold her more often. Jeff got to change his first diaper, and did a very good job! She was very happy and content when he got done.

So relaxed and comfy!

Craig put some pictures from Friday on his website if anyone wants to see pictures. The web address is http://rainboltphotography.com/. Hopefully we will be able to get some of the other pictures that we have taken up soon.

She loves her Daddy!

She's Here!!

Lydia was born on Friday, March 14th at 5:23 p.m. She weighed 4 pounds 13 ounces and was 18 3/4 inches long! She is beautiful and we are already so in love with her! She has done so well since she was born. She has been breathing on her own, which means that she never had to go on the ventilator! That was one of the worries with her being so early! But she is strong! She started feeding on Sunday morning and they have already increased her feedings from 10 mL of milk/formula to 15 mL!

We went home on Sunday...and it was so hard to leave her! We know that she is in good hands and that they are taking wonderful care of her! We will be making lots of trips up to the NICU to see her though! They have not told us when she will come home, but hopefully in the next week or two. We are ready for her to be home with us.

Thanks again for all your prayers...that is what has gotten us through this so far! God has been so good and we are thankful for the support from our family and friends! We love you and will keep you updated!

The Unexpected...

Well...we just thought that we had more time to get ready for little Lydia to get here! Tuesday morning at 2:00 I woke up and my water had broken! So...we quickly threw some stuff in a bag (of course I had NO clue what I wanted to take...and had not started a bag) and came up to the hospital. When I got here I was having contractions and they were 2-4 minutes apart. The doctor wanted them to stop the contractions, so they started giving me medicine to do that. They stopped and they started me on an antibiotic and a steroid to develop her little lungs. I finished taking the steriod at 4:00 yesterday and they took me off the contraction medicine at 5:00 this morning (Thursday). So now we are just going to wait and see what happens! We had an ultrasound yesterday afternoon and she looked GREAT! The doctor said he estimates that she weighs around 5 pounds 3 oz. So that is really good! The doctor hopes that she will wait a little longer for her to get here...but they are not going to stop labor if/when it starts up. So for now I am just stuck on bed rest...and we are waiting!

With our fruit basket from brothers and sister-in-laws!

Looks yummy! Can't wait to try it out!

It's been a little overwhelming...but God has given us so much comfort and peace. So many family and friends have come by to check on us and are praying for us, and we know that is what is helping us get through this. It's wonderful knowing you have people that you can lean on!

We guess Lydia is just ready to get here! Don't know if she got excited about her little cousin Eden and wanted to meet her quickly...or if she wanted to get here to see all her things that she got at her church shower on Sunday! The shower was amazing...such a blessing! Jeff put her stroller together Monday night...so maybe she wanted to go for a ride! Whatever the reason is...we are just praying that she will be healthy and strong!

At our church shower

Some of her stuff from the shower

Some more of her stuff...

Lydia's clothes in her closet

Her rocking chair that Aunt Glenda made for her and piggy bank and frame from GiGi

We will try to keep this updated so you can know what is going on! :) Who knows...next post might have Lydia's first picture in it!

7 Weeks!!

WoW! Time has really flown by! We only have 7 weeks until Lydia's due date! Now who knows if she will come on her due date or not (we are kind of hoping a little early!)...but none the less, she is almost here! We can hardly wait to be able to hold her in our arms! We've kept busy trying to get ready for her to be born. There still seems to be a lot left on our "To Do List" though! Hopefully most of it will get done though! Here is a picture of me at 33 weeks.

Grandmother finished up her bedding and it is waiting in her bed for her! It looks so cute! We love it!! We also painted some letters to eventually be hung on the wall in her nursery.

Yesterday we had our first "snowfall"! It was not a whole lot, but it sure was pretty! Now we are ready for spring to get here! One snowfall is enough for us! Here is a picture of our back yard.

We've been so thankful for a smooth pregnancy so far, and are praying that it will continue!