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

Emma's Birth Announcement!!

Happy Sunday!

Its been another good day for Emma. Besides her Chargers winning the AFC West today against the Bengals, (ok, ok, that was more Mommy's thing but Emma will be excited about it someday soon!) she gained another ounce and a half and is now 4lbs 14.5 ounces! Only 1.5 ounces to go to hit that 5lb mark!

She also has had her feedings upgraded to 46 cc a feed, and she will now be on the bottle every other feed instead of just once a shift. This is pretty significant as its another sign that they are getting her ready to come home to us. We still don't expect her home before New Years, but every little development makes us very excited.

Tonight Matt and I will be going back to the hospital at 11pm to give her a bath and then do the 11:30 feeding. Of course this will be following up by a few snuggles too. :) We love watching her little face look for us when she hears our voices and she is becoming more and more alert and interactive. Our little girl is becoming more and more amazing every day! She is looking forward to meeting Grammy and Grandpa Nolan and Auntie Dana in a few days, as well as Grandma and Grandpa Jennings too!

We are marching in the right direction, slow and steady! Please know how appreciated your prayers and well wishes continue to be for us!

Love,

Matt, Sara & Emma

My Calfornia Girl!

A 22ml day!

Yesterday was a good day. At her 11:30 am feeding Emma took 22 ml out of the bottle before getting sleepy, which is a great feat for her. Her weight is was up to 4lb 12oz, so she is consistently gaining about an ounce to an ounce and a half a day which we love to see. She seems to be mostly awake for a night feeding at about 2am so last night, since Daddy was in Incline getting mail and making sure the condo is still standing, I decided to take a tube feeding and just snuggle at 8:30pm, and see if the nurses could get a good nipple feed out of her later. It was so great to just get to relax in a big comfy chair with my girl!

The nurse last night told me that as she gets bigger and puts on more weight, her body will be better able to handle longer stretches awake and the bottle feeds will be getting consistently better. She continues to hold her temps well and watching her change everyday is amazing to us! She is awesome!

Somehow I managed to get our Christmas cards out yesterday, and we are very much looking forward to my parents and the Flahertys' coming up next Thursday for Christmas and to meet Emma for the first time. Then after Christmas Matt's parents get to come meet their granddaughter as well. Emma is looking forward to lots of snuggles from everyone and eventually getting to come home with us. Keep those prayers coming for her progress! We see them in action every day!

Love,

Matt, Sara & Emma

Baby Girl 12/17!

Day 15

Emma turned two weeks old yesterday! As of today she weighed in at 4lbs 10oz and continues to grow like crazy. We have noticed that her new preemie outfits are fitting pretty tight and I am thinking she might be growing out of them in the near future which is amazing. Her body temps remain perfect, and she is doing all the things we need her to do. The bottle situation continues to be an issue however. She will eat 10-12ccs of milk and then gets so tired all she wants to do is sleep. The nurse told us tonight that she seems to enjoy waking up around 2am and then likes to talk and look around. OUCH! We may be in for some serious sleepless nights when she gets home.

She is still on par with coming home most likely around New Years. As much as we would love to have her home by Christmas, we want her to be totally ready before she does. She'll get there though! And she has definitely won the nurses over. They love to hover over her and tell her how cute she is. Emma is super mellow and pretty low maintenance at this point, so she is pretty easy to fall in love with. I know, I know, we are biased!

Thank you for your continued prayers and love! I'll post some new pics tomorrow.

Love,
Sara, Matt and Emma

Emma keeps it rolling...

Emma continues to do really well. At press time she was 4lbs 8oz, and is beginning her vitamins this morning. Her food intake is also being bumped up to 40ccs a feed, so we're hoping she starts putting on the weight even faster now. She has had one feed where she took everything from the bottle, but more common is her taking anywhere from 12-14ccs these days, so she has a ways to go before she gets the bottle feeds down. Everyday is more progress though and we are so grateful to watch it happen. We live for the day we get to take our healthy girl home with us!

Emma's First Visitor!

The last few days have been great in Emma land. She was officially upgraded from Level III to Level II, which means she is now considered non critical and expected to improve rapidly. Since she is getting all of her nutrition from her milk now, she was able to have the pic line removed which is so great for her. She also was moved to a new room where less care is required, so all signs continue to point to major improvements for our girl.

Today Matt and I took an infant CPR class which is required before we can take Emma home. My friend Jessica also drove all the way up from San Francisco to meet Emma and become her first official visitor! The picture is from them meeting for the first time, which was very sweet!

Tomorrow I am hoping to go over and help with Emma's bath time for the first time, and we continue to try and do her bottle feeds each day which is great for us. Every time we see her something new has changed and we get so excited to hear about her progress everyday.

Please keep those prayers coming as they mean the world to us and are definitely helping! We love you all!

Matt, Sara & Emma

P.S.
Emma wants to say welcome to the world Baby Boy Reinfried who was born yesterday, December 14th at home in San Francisco! We anticipate a lot of play dates for these two and maybe some competition on the slopes too! Congrats Martin and Dennise!

Emma's Big Girl Open Air Condo!

Our Big Girl!!

Well, Emma just keeps blowing through these important milestones! Yesterday was a GREAT day on the bottle front! Daddy got her to eat 12ml at lunch time, and she ate 9ml for Mommy at night time. She is definitely getting the idea that there is good stuff in there and she wants it. When we pick her up at meal times she starts to root around a little bit like a little bird. Yesterday was the most comfortable I have seen her so far, and it seems like it takes less effort for her to extract the milk. She still gets sleepy pretty fast, but at her gestational age, that is completely normal. We are so proud of her progress!!

Another HUGE development is that she has been moved OUT of the isolette that she was in and into an open air bed! This means she has been successfully regulating her own body temps! Way to go baby girl! They had been weaning down the temps in her box for the last few days until it hit standard room temp and monitoring her reaction to it. She handled it like a champ, so at 5am this morning she got moved to her new "big girl" bed. They will watch her pretty closely the next few hours especially to make sure that she continues to do well, but this is a major step in the right direction!

Since she got to the NICU she has been on a Lipids drip to help increase her body fat so she could bulk up a little bit. (Like her Daddy she was extra long and lean...great for him, not so much for a preemie.) Because she is getting almost 100% of her nutrition from my milk now, the Lipids and IV feeding solution will be going away in the next day or two! Gone with them will be the pic line in her arm in which it is delivered, so we are absolutely over the moon about that. All she would have left after that is her temp monitor and of course her vitals, but those are really minor. She still has the feeding tube in her nose because she is not finishing all her bottle orally, but everyday that she eats more from the bottle itself, she gets closer and closer to being able to lose that as well. Our daughter is just amazing! I think she wants to go home as much as we want to take her home! :)

Today Matt is going to go home to Incline to pick up the mail, make sure the pipes haven't burst with all this snow, etc, so it will just be me at the 2:30 and 8:30 feedings. We will miss Daddy but I have to admit I will enjoy getting the snuggles all to myself! :) She is so much more alert and awake now when we're there, when she looks up at you with those amazing blue eyes you can't help but feel so good. He will come back in time for the nighttime feeding on Monday. On Monday I also have my first post op doctors appointment to check my incision and make sure my blood pressure is still cooperating. They have me on BP medication to make sure it stays low, so we'll see how that is going. I still have some swelling in my feet which is annoying, but I'm sure he'll be able to give me a better idea about how things are going.

Thank you all again and again for your prayers and well wishes. They truly mean the world to us and I KNOW what a difference they are making. I can see it everyday in the progress that our baby is making. I am really looking forward to the day where we can introduce you all to our amazing daughter! We love you!

Love,

Matt, Sara and Emma

More Bottle Time with Daddy

Way to go Daddy!

Today was a quieter day on the development front. Emma continues to do well and we got to try two more rounds of bottle feeds. Mommy got the afternoon shift and she took about 3ml before getting sleepy and just wanting snuggles. Tonight Daddy got 4ml and she really seemed like she was getting the hang of it. The better she does, the quicker she gets to come home, so we're glad to see each day get a little better.

We are also in awe at the Ronald McDonald house. Every day we go downstairs at dinner time and see a different charity/church group/etc has set up an amazing meal for the families staying here and it just warms our heart. Today the house got Christmas lights put up for free from a local landscaping business that does all their lawn care in the summer at no cost as well. The amazing kindness of strangers is surrounding us every where we look, and it just makes us want to cry sometimes. (Well, me more than Matt since I'm the one with the crazy hormones). If you are looking for a charity to give to this year, I would highly encourage you to consider this one. I can't tell you the impact they have had for us during the toughest time of our lives. Because of them, we are able to be better parents for Emma and that is the most important thing to us right now.

Well that's all for today. Emma is doing really fantastic and making advances everyday. We are so amazed everytime we look at her and can't wait for the day we get to take her home with us. Please keep those prayers coming! We truly feel every one and it keeps us going! We love you!

Love,

Matt, Sara & Emma

Another Amazing Day for Emma!

Our baby just keeps amazing us! Last we heard she was eating 10 CCs of milk per feeding! By the end of today, she was bumped up to 18 and the doctor asked the every twelve hours she go up again by 2! She is digesting everything wonderfully and seems to keep wanting more which is fantastic to see. When we arrived for our afternoon visit we were told she would be having her very first bottle feed! I got to do the afternoon one, and Daddy got to try at night. She is still very young (most babies learn this at about 34-35 weeks while still in the womb) at 34 weeks gestational age, but she was starting to get the hang of it. As of now she will bottle feed once a shift (AM and PM) until she really starts to understand what she needs to do, and then she will be doing it more frequently. Right now she'll suck a little bit, but then get tired and try to go to sleep on you. But this was a really important first step for her to master on her march to come home!

Beyond the bottle and great feeds, she is up another 2 ounces today which puts her at 4lbs, 6oz, 2 full ounces over her birth weight! In a preemie this is huge progress and we love seeing it! Everyday she gets stronger and more alert and we love the time we get to spend with her. It truly is the best part of our day!

Keep those prayers coming! They're definitely working and we love you!

Sara, Matt and Emma

Emma's Banner Day!!

Well Emma Elizabeth had an AMAZING day yesterday! During the night she was moved from the critical room to the intermediate care room! When we arrived for our afternoon visit we got there just in time to see her get a bath! It was so amazing to see our baby girl without any of the wires or sensors on her and gave us a glimpse of a future not too far away. We were given 2 pieces of great news right off that bat. First, she is completely off of supplemental oxygen! No more! She doesn’t need it anymore and she is completely on room air and doing it for herself! Good job Emma! Second, after being told yesterday that she was going to 6 CCs of milk per feeding, today we were told that they were already bumping her up to 10! She is loving the milk that Mommy brings to her and is digesting it like a champ, even when they increase the volume so often. These are all fantastic signs and important milestones on her way to coming home!

Daddy and I got to help a little bit with bath time, and then after she was all dried off we got to dress her in her first actual pink, fuzzy jammies. She is SO adorable! (I know, I know, I am way biased!) Daddy got to have some great snuggle time with her and it looked like both Daddy and Emma were about to fall asleep together in the chair. That brought back some great memories for me of my Dad falling asleep rocking us in his big easy chair. When it was time to go, the nurse told us that she was going to leave Emma in her outfit and that they were weaning the temp down in her “condo” (it’s called an isolette but we like condo better) in anticipation of her being upgraded to open air beds and giving her a chance to start regulating her own temp. Mastering this would be another HUGE milestone in her journey to her new life in Lake Tahoe! The top three things they need her to do to go home is gain weight, regulate her body temps on her own, and nipple feed successfully. She is well on her way and we are so proud of our girl!

Today Mommy gets to try something called nuzzling, where we start introducing Emma to the act of breastfeeding. I don’t expect her to actually eat yet (although with the way things are going and what a little piggy she is she may yet surprise me again) but it will start giving her the idea about what she is supposed to do when she is ready. And it will be an incredible moment for me as far as bonding with my daughter. I am really excited! Everyday we see Emma reaching these milestones by leaps and bounds and we are so blessed to see it. Yesterday she was a week old and the difference in the baby I saw that first day on 12/2 and the one we see now is truly miraculous! The prayers are working and we are so thankful to you all for continuing to pray for, think about, and love our girl! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Love,
Sara, Matt and Emma E

A Good Day for Emma E!

Today was a good day in the NICU. We visited Emma twice, once in the afternoon and again at night to say goodnight. The first visit we heard that her feeding had been upped from 2 CCs of breast milk to 4 because she is tolerating it so well! That makes Mommy feel very good! Then we saw that her weight went up 2 more ounces as well, so she has gained a total of 3 ounces in 2 days. Way to go Emma! On our second visit, we were told that she is moving up in the world! Instead of being in the critical corner she has improved enough to earn a space in a the non-critical room of the NICU. That made us so happy! Tonight Daddy changed his first diaper ever as well and Mommy got to take Emma's temp before her feeding. The nurses in the NICU are simply amazing and being very good to us in letting us be such a big part of Emma's daily life. Every day we show up we see more and more improvement and it lifts our spirits!

Our First Picture as a Family!

Emma and Daddy

One of Emma's very favorite activities is snuggling and no one snuggles quite as nice as Daddy!

Emma is Here!

Most of you have heard the dramatic story of Emma's very early arrival on December 2nd via emergency C-Section, so I won't go over it again! She was born 7 weeks early and weighed in at 4lbs 4oz, and 17 inches long. I am recovering from surgery pretty well, all things considered. She is small, but mighty! All of the nurses have described her as "feisty" and we like that! They also asked us which of us has the temper since she tends to turn purple and get pretty ticked off when you do something she doesn't like. :) OF course, we both laughed and said that could have come from either side! We just think she is absolutely perfect though, and every moment we spend with her is heavenly!

Yesterday we moved into the Ronald McDonald house here in Reno, which is just the most amazing charity. We are literally right next door to the hospital, which is such a comforting thought. We visit with Emma twice a day usually, one time for each shift of the nurses. I am also pumping about every 3-4 hours so she has some good stuff to eat to make her strong. So far she digests the breast milk wonderfully and the formula not so much, so she definitely has a preference. The staff at Renown Medical Facility here in Reno is AMAZING and they are taking such good care of our girl.

Yesterday, beyond just gaining an ounce which we love to see, we got to change her diaper for the very first time! Then we got some snuggle time in which is our (and I think her too) favorite part of the day. She is just so calm and content when we hold her and I swear it is good for our health too! Everytime we look at her we are just amazed that we made something that awesome! Can you tell we're a little in love with this girl??

Today is our first full day working from the Ronald McDonald house and getting on a more solid schedule with visiting Emma. So far so good! This house gives us such a great starting place to get our footing under us and be the best we can be for our daughter. We're planning on going over sometime mid-morning (in a funny twist of fate there is actually a dairy down the street which I thought was SO appropriate) and again after shift change at night to tuck her in. The nice part is we're close and can visit her anytime we want to. It feels good for the heart!

Anyways, that is post one of the life and times of Emma Jennings! Our one request is that everytime you read a post on here that you stop and say a little prayer for our baby girls continued health and growth! She says to tell you all that she can't wait to meet you soon!

Love,
SJ