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
