precious pictures

While Haley was in the NICU the March of Dimes arranged to have a photographer come in and take pictures of who ever wanted to have their baby's pictures taken. We were so excited and the pictures came out great. It's hard to believe she was once that small ( actually smaller ). This first one if my favorite by far. I love how she is looking up at me.

Kangaroo care ( skin to skin holding ) was so important for Haley's development. It helped her to relax and it helped us bond. Dan was even able to do it and he enjoyed it as well. Our body heat kept her warm while she was away from her heated incubator.

peeking at mommy


Love


Tiny feet

Stop signs
Stop signs is a term used a lot in the NICU. We attended a class on reading our preemies signals. Stop signs are an important one. It's how the baby tells us they have had enough or are over stimulated. It means stop and leave me a lone for a while. Haley used hers a lot. She was a trouble maker in the NICU. She actually earned the nick name Houdini. She was always trying to get the CPAP and leads and feeding tube out and rolling around in the incubator. Her fiestiness got her out of there in 5 weeks. I don't think anyone expected that.

Haley Joy

Haley Joy. Born 9/25/08 29 weeks and 5 days. 2 lbs 9.6 oz 15 in. She only spent 35 days in the NICU. 1/2 the amount of time we were told to expect!

not posting for a while

I will not be posting on here for a while. We have a special site for Haley where I will post updates. It is privacy protected. Dan and I appreciate all the prayers for Haley and if you want to have access to the site just send me your email address and I'll send you the invite. I think you have to join or something after your first visit so you can keep coming back. My mom had a little trouble so if you have trouble feel free to email me and I'll see if I can help you figure it out. It's a site the march of dimes helped us with and we wanted some we knew that we could control who was seeing and reading. Keep praying. It will still be quite sometime before we can bring our daughter home.

a cry for help!

Please has anyone ever experienced bad swelling in pregnancy? As of now, blood pressure is ok so I am just trying to find things I can do to get it to go away! I put my feet up most of the day, drink 1 gallon of water, try not to eat too much salt, and try to get some exercise but not too much. My mom thought maybe some kind of tea might help but we don't know if there is any kind that would be best. If you have any magic tricks please tell me. When I get up in the morning ( which is backwards from how it should be ) I am so huge and sore I just can't take it much longer. I sat with ice on my legs last night, but no help. Thanks.

looking back

5 years ago Dan and I celebrated one of the best days of our lives. Actually 5 years ago tomorrow but I doubt I'll have time to blog. It's hard to believe we've been married for 5 years already. So much has changed too. We have moved twice since then. We had our apartment which we only lived in for 6 months, then our house in croydon where we lived for 3 years and our current home. We adopted our first dog after about 8 months of marriage whom we loved for 1 year before he passed away suddenly. We then adopted our second dog Toby whom we are loving every day with. We had out first baby, Jacob. I can't imagine my life with out him. Now we are expecting our second bundle of joy and we just can't wait to see what this little on will add to our family. We've had good times and bad times. We've grown so much as a couple. I still get butterflies all the time. Through it all I wouldn't change a thing.

It's been a great 5 years. I can't believe it's been 5 years. I have been blessed with an amazing husband who is also a wonderful father to Jacob.

I'll never forget how it felt 5 years ago when we said our vows. I'll never forget the way we looked at each other and how happy we were on that day. I'll never forget because it's all still there. I'm more in love with Dan and he still looks at me as if we just started dating.

Thank you for a great 5 years. I can't wait to see what God has in store for the next 5 and beyond!

I'm ok

Thank God everything is ok. No bed rest for this momma yet. I don't know what I'll do if it comes to that. Midwife's orders were, rest, drink even more ( we're up to 128 oz a day!!! ), and some coke to help with my headaches and hopefully relieve some swelling. Other than that everything is ok. Baby has be super active today and I'm so grateful for that. Whenever I'm worried about it this kid reminds me that he or she is ok. So in trying to obey my orders my post may be brief and not too many. I need to save my time that I'm not laying down for Jacob. He doesn't understand and I don't want him to really know what's going on. I just tell him mommy's not feeling well today and he needs to let me rest. He's so good about it and takes good care of me. I love my little boy.

ARG

So this morning I woke up to not being able to move my fingers and a lot of pain when I try to walk. I've been battling swelling now for a few weeks but this is the worst it's gotten. And I'm sure when I go to the doctor today they are going to tell me it's not that bad, but when I called asking for advice they said I needed to be seen to make sure it's nothing. Gotta love that. The nurses say come in and when you do the midwives wonder what you are doing there. I am due for my next appointment anyway which was supposed to be tomorrow so they just moved it up 1 day. They had openings so it was no big deal. I feel like I'm living in my bathroom lately because of how much water I've been drinking in hopes to relieve the swelling. I've been really uncomfortable in my legs so maybe they can give me some tips of how to help with that.

In other news, Jacob has been wearing underwear for short periods of time and keeping them dry! I'm so proud of him. He's growing up so fast. I can't believe it. He's taking care of me today and just told me to I need to go lay down. I told him not to let me off the couch for too long and he's doing what I asked. So I must go and do as my little doctor orders! Maybe he'll give me a check up with his medical kit again.