18 Months!! WHAT???

Here is a little slideshow of Emma's latest and greatest! We can hardly believe she's a walking, talking human being! She is truly the joy of our lives though and the best thing we have EVER done in our lives!

4 Months Later

Hey all! I know its been a LONG time since I've updated this blog. Life has been incredibly busy and hectic, but wonderful and filling all at the same time. Believe it or not, Emma is 4 months old now, over 13 lbs and 23.5 inches long. We are amazed by her progress and she has been a pure delight to our lives. So far she has been to San Francisco and San Diego, and will be going to LA, Lake Nacimiento and the Outer Banks this summer. In June she gets to go to her very first Dodger game too, which is very exciting for Mommy. Thanksgiving this year we are planning to go to Grandma and Grandpa Jennings' house, and Christmas we will have EVERYONE together in San Diego. Matt and I consider 2010 her first real Christmas since she was still in the hospital during the last one.

I attached some pictures of Emma that I took today and over the last week, so those of you who are not on Facebook you can see what a difference a few months makes! We continue to be beyond grateful for all of your love and support during those 5, tough weeks she was in the hospital. We felt EVERY prayer and know it made all the difference! We love you!

Emma is HOME!

This will be a really brief post, as Daddy and I are EXHAUSTED! But Emma Elizabeth is home, snug in her bed, with us in Incline. We are so blessed! So far she is an excellent sleeper and eater, and cries very little. Thursday we have our first doctors appointment and until then we are just trying to get to know each other.

We are so beyond happy to have our daughter home with us and know in our hearts that she is here and healthy because of the prayers and well wishes of you all! We will never forget it! I'll write more later (right now its all about the Temperpedic!) but for now, thank you to each of you for your support and for loving us and our baby girl!

Love,

Matt, Sara and Emma

No More Tubes!!

Well, the picture says it all but our baby is feeding tube free!!! Yeah! This means that every time she eats, its via bottle only. As of yesterday she was being fed every three hours but today they upgraded her to ad lib, which means while they will try and keep her somewhat to that 3 hour time frame, she will eat when and as much as she wants, when she wants. This is potentially a HUGE development because at this point, there is nothing that the hospital can do for her that we can't do at home. Essentially now we will just wait and make sure she continues to gain weight, so we should have a better idea of when we can go home soon!

We have been so blessed as besides being preemie and small, Emma has had no real health issues. We know that's because we have so many amazing friends and family members rooting and praying for her! Keep them coming! We may be doing a post from home soon!

Love,

Matt, Sara & Emma

A Big Development!

I just got back from visiting our girl for her 2:30pm bottle feed and was told some great news. Emma has been doing so good with her nipple feeds that she has been upgraded from every other feed on a nipple to nipple as tolerated. This basically means that she is getting the bottle at EVERY feed. She has two more steps essentially to get to go home. One, she has to finish every bottle for a 24 hour period. She is pretty close to that. She did almost 40 out of 50 for me today and did all 50 for the two feeds before that. They will try not to push her too hard the first day or so just so she doesn't get too worn out, but so far so good. After that, then they go to on demand feeding, which means when she cries and is hungry, then they feed her rather than the every 3 hours schedule. If she tolerates that, then she gets kicked out to come live with her very excited parents! We are thrilled and will keep you all up to date on her progress.

Tomorrow night is New Years Eve. WOW! The end of 2009 was a doozy but we are looking forward to spending 2010 with our beautiful baby girl. Our plan is to have dinner somewhere in Reno and then head to the NICU for Emma's 11:30pm feeding so we can ring in the New Year with our favorite person. We wish you all a blessed and happy 2010 and thank you yet again for your continued support, prayers and love! We know we have the best friends and family in the world!

Love,

Matt, Sara and Emma

One Whole Bottle Down the Hatch!

Today was a VERY good day! Emma, for the very first time, finished a WHOLE bottle for me! She has done it for the nurses, but today she did it for her parents and in less than 15 minutes. Even greater, she was still awake and wanting to interact with us after she was done eating, which shows us how strong she is getting. We are SO proud of our girl!! IN addition to her bottle trick, she is also 5 lbs 6 oz today so she keeps growing like a weed!

We will go back tonight and let Daddy take a turn as well, and the tomorrow at her 8:30 am feeding I get to go in and try nuzzling for the first time, which is a precursor to breastfeeding. I am very excited! The nurses kept saying when she gets it, it would happen fast. We're hoping that this is the start of her countdown to come home to us!

A light at the end of the tunnel....

Merry Christmas everyone! Sorry its been a few days since I updated the blog, but with Christmas being here and my family coming up to visit its been a crazy couple of days. Emma has had visitors galore and its not over yet! On top of that, we've seem some pretty dramatic improvements as well.

First of, as off last night she is 5 pounds and 5 ounces! In about 3 weeks she has gained more than a pound over her birth weight which is fantastic! Add in the 2 inches she grew the first 3 weeks of life and this girl is growing fast! We think she is just as excited as we are to come home, hopefully soon. We don't have a date for that yet, and probably won't until right before it happens, but we're still marching forward. The big development of this week is that our baby girl seems to be getting the hang of that bottle! She took 38 out of 46 ml for Daddy yesterday, and 26 at two other feedings twice. The nurses have been basically allowing her to nipple feed every time she is awake and seems like she's "rooting" or chewing on her hands looking for the bottle. So yesterday she got a nipple in EVERY feeding and did really well. She was a little tired at the last feeding we did, but the more weight she gains and the better she gets at the motion the easier it will become for her. This was the first serious gain we had seen on this front in about a week, so we were THRILLED! It is a major step to getting that feeding tube out of her nose, and we were told once that happens, then its usually 2-3 days later that she would get released. Keep those prayers coming!!

Emma's other big adventure was getting to meet her maternal Grandparents Tom and Candy for the first time, as well as Auntie Dana! She was very excited, as were they. Grandma and Grandpa drove in a few days before Christmas and stayed at the Sands hotel to be close to their girl and got to snuggle with her twice on the 23rd. Auntie Dana got her turn on Christmas day. There were lots of happy tears for all, except for Emma who has just happy to be snuggled by everyone. It meant so much to be that my family drove up to meet my daughter!

On Sunday night she may get to meet Karl and Dana Quist, Matt's business partner and his wife, who are in Tahoe for Christmas, and then on Monday Grandpa and Grandma Jennings are flying in from their trip to San Diego to meet their very first grandchild. Carol had been keeping her fingers crossed for a girl too, so I can't wait to see her face when she gets to hold Emma (who is named after her Mother) for the first time. It will be special!

So that's the latest! She is putting weight on and growing taller like crazy, and it looks like we're turning a corner with the bottle feeds. Please keep those prayers coming to us as I feel like we're getting closer to her getting to come home with us soon! Matt and I are just to ready to be a family so we're beyond excited with the improvements we are seeing! Go Emma go! We hope you all had a VERY Merry Christmas and a fantastic upcoming New Years! We love you!

Matt, Sara and Emma