Thankful...

...for my four little turkeys

...and for this precious little girl

 ...and for my dear husband and wonderful friends and family who are all God-sent blessings to me!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Two-Month Milestones

Little Rebekah has made so much progress this past week!  She was taken off oxygen and is now breathing completely on her own.  She also began feeding from a bottle!  She's currently being bottle-fed twice per shift but still has a feeding tube leading to her little belly until she's ready to be fed solely from a bottle.  The tube is inserted through her nose instead of her mouth to make it easier for her to take the bottle.  We love being able to see more of her precious little face now! 

Wednesday I was allowed to feed her for the first time and she ate like a champ.  The nurse was very impressed. Afterwards Rebekah laid on my chest, staring at me intently.  It was a sweet moment filled with such love and happiness for me, and I hope for Rebekah as well.  I think she knows who Billy and I are even though we only see her for 2 hours each day.

Rebekah is still on contact precautions for MRSA. Thankfully we are still allowed to do Kangaroo Care, otherwise she would have no skin-to-skin contact at all. She also reached a whopping 4 pounds this week!  While we had been under the impression she needed to weigh 5 lbs. before coming home, the nurse last night told me weight is not a requirement for being released from the hospital.  She just needs to be breathing on her own, taking all feeds from a bottle, and needs to be able to regulate her own body temperature.  Yesterday they began turning down the temperature in her isolette to make it closer to room temperature to see how her body adjusts. 

Last night I also learned that Rebekah's gestational age is somewhat older than we previously thought.  Instead of being 24 weeks at birth,  Rebekah was probably closer to 28 weeks.  This would certainly explain why she's been doing so well.  It also means she could be coming home sooner than we thought - possibly by Christmas!  What a gift that would be!

I think she agrees!

(Ok, so this was really just a mid-sleep gas smile.  Adorable nonetheless!)

3 lbs 12 oz and Doing Great!

I Miss the Mess of Summer

We've finally had our first taste of fall-ish weather the past few days, and I'm already a bit nostalgic for summer.  Don't get me wrong, I love these cool, crisp days and these mid-fall sunrises are breathtaking.  But cooler weather means we have to add many extra minutes to our get-out-of-the-door routine because of the need for socks and jackets.  (I took 3 kids out by myself two different times today so I know what I'm talking about, people.)  No more just throwing on flip flops and hopping outside.

All right, back to my point: summer.  And how much I love it.  I thought I'd share with you one of my favorite memories from this summer....the day we said "yes" to the ice cream truck.  First, you have to know that I basically have a hate-hate relationship with the ice cream truck.  Ok, ok, we don't use the word "hate" around here, so let's say "strongly dislike".  The truck starts coming around entirely too early (like February) and then never seems to leave the neighborhood until September.  I'm not even sure how our kids found out the truck sold ice cream because we tried to keep them blissfully ignorant for as long as possible.  I knew that once we bought ice cream from the truck, the driver would probably come park in front of our house and drive us batty with that "music" every time he came back to the neighborhood.

Well, one gorgeous evening near the end of July we walked the kids over to the neighborhood park and decided to let them have an ice cream treat.  If we bought the ice cream at the park, we reasoned, the driver wouldn't know where we lived.   So sneaky, I know.  But we really, really don't want to be stalked by the ice cream truck. 

Without further ado, here's what happens when 3 of the 500 Babies eat ice cream on a summer evening (with extra-large photos so you can relive the experience right along with me!)...

So many flavors!  So many varieties!  What's a child to do?  Don't worry, kids.  The truck is sold out of Dora and chocolate crunch, and just about everything else we asked for, so it's Spiderman bars all around.

 Mmm...good.  So far so yummy.

 Ahh...this is the life.

Easy does it, Daniel.  I see that bit of red on your nose and hint of blue on your lip. Be careful!

 Uh-oh, we have drippage.

 And more drippage...
             

Even Joe is not immune to the drippage. (Notice how the colors of his ice cream almost blend perfectly with the stripes on his shirt.  Cool!)

                  

Now take note of the status of each child's treat.  Dan's is still fully intact, Joe's is missing a couple of bites, and Mikea's is a chomp or two from being finished off completely.

 Hey Dan, I like your sticky beard!

Eww...dripping icky madness!  And that poor whale shirt has never been the same since.

At this point in the game we heard the rumble of thunder of an approaching storm so we quickly wiped up the kids and hightailed it home.  You don't think we would ever leave the house without wipes, do you?  (Oh wait. There was that one time when we went to the park and one of the children left an explosive mess on the slide.  Mmm-hmmm.  Yep.  That really happened to us.  And we had no wipes.  None.  But luckily for the rest of the park-goers we did have paper towels in the van.)

The ice cream experience was horrifyingly messy, yes, yes it was. But this is exactly what summer is all about, my friends, and one of many reasons why I miss it already!  Don't you?

Rebekah Vivien

So who's Rebekah Vivien, you're wondering?  Well, the Baby-Formerly-Known-As Adrianna is Rebekah Vivien.  That's the name we've chosen if we get to adopt her and that's what we already call her within our family.  We were keeping the name a secret for a while, but then we told a couple of people and now I don't know who knows and it'll just be easier if we all call her Rebekah, right?  Besides, we still don't exactly know what her given name is because the latest documents we received from TDFPS list her name as Elicia, not Adrianna.  We didn't want to have an Adrian and an Adrianna in our household, so after a few days of careful consideration Billy and I chose the name Rebekah Vivien and we think it suits her very well.

So how's our little girl doing?  The good news is she continues to steadily gain weight.  In fact, last night she surpassed 3 lbs.!  That means she's gained 1 pound in a little less than a month. However, she just tested positive for MRSA, a resistant form of staph.  We're hoping and praying it doesn't develop into something more serious. 

Now prepare yourselves for the cutest pictures EVER:

Ah, the preciousness is just too much!  Last night we were told we can begin bringing in preemie-sized onsies for her, so I'm hoping to squeeze in a quick shopping trip later this afternoon or early evening before Billy goes back to visit her tonight. 

In other news, I think we finally have an adoption date set for Adrian - December 10.  However, last week we found out that an entire packet of paperwork that I sent to the adoption worker was apparently LOST and I have to do it all over again.  But as long as nothing else gets delayed, we should be able to make Mr. Adrian official just in time for Christmas!