***warning-if you are at all squeamish about seeing babies hooked up to wires and tubes, this post may not be for you!***

August 6, 2005. I can still vividly remember the day we went to the hospital because something was very wrong! I was having pains that were not normal. I knew, even weeks before this day, that she’d be arriving early (I had had Pre-Eclampsia with my son and could already feel some of the symptoms coming on). I kept trying to tell the doctors, but they didn’t seem to be listening until I finally demanded that they give me the steroid shots that help speed up lung development. These shots (a set of 2) have to be given 24 hours apart, and the day I went to the hospital was only 3 days after the 2nd shot! I knew! So, as they were getting me settled into labor & delivery, they did an ultrasound, and discovered that I had almost no amniotic fluid left! My Pre-Eclampsia wasn’t as severe as with Alexander, but the doctor decided that combined with the extremely low amniotic fluid, it was time to deliver. 5ish hours after being admitted to labor & delivery, I was being prepped for an emergency c-section, and in just a few short minutes, my little baby girl was going to enter the world…11 weeks early!! She was so tiny! Weighing in at a whopping 2 pounds and 5 ounces, and only 13 inches long! I called her my little “footlong”! She was beautifully pink and precious! She had a great set of lungs on her, and let out a good tiny little cry! As tiny as her lungs were, they were working perfectly, and she did not require any oxygen when she was born! Those shots that I demanded had worked!! The next 3 months were a roller coaster! Lots of ups and downs in her health and development and our emotions! When she was about 10 days old, they discovered that she had a staph infection!! She started breathing poorly, because she was retaining so much water that her tiny body was swelling, a lot, and she had to be put on oxygen. It was a fight to get rid of it. A fight that required lots and lots of antibiotics, having to be put on a ventilator, and then having to have surgery, at 23 days old, to close a tiny hole in her heart! After recovering from her surgery we had to just sit and watch, and hope and pray that her tiny little body could fight off this terrible staph infection that was wreaking havoc on her! All the while wondering if we’d ever get to take her home so she could meet her big brother! It seemed as though as soon as they cleared her of the staph infection that she had already gotten another one!! What??? My poor baby! At this time, at least 3 other babies also had a staph infection! It seemed to be running rampant in the NICU. One baby was already in isolation, and they were talking about moving another into isolation. Thankfully, this 2nd infection cleared up a bit faster than the first! Now it was on to getting off the ventilator, and learning how to eat! Up until this point, she had been getting breast milk and other nutrients via a feeding tube. She was gaining weight very slowly though, so they were adding a formula supplement to the breast milk. She did great when we started feeding her with the bottle. And then they discovered digestive problems! It’s so true what they say about preemies…2 steps forward and 1 step back. It was back to the feeding tube. They had to figure out what was wrong. It felt like I was never going to be able to take my little girl home.  It took what seemed like forever but was really probably only about a week, and they had decided that her little tummy just wasn’t as developed as they’d hoped. So, she remained on the feeding tube for a while longer, and they had put it in far enough that the milk went directly into her intestines bypassing her stomach. During this time they also determined that she suffered from severe reflux. They put her on some meds, and that seemed to help. Finally things were turning around. She was gaining weight, and had begun to tolerate the reflux meds, and they tried the bottle feeding again. It was working!! One day at a time we were getting closer to the day when we would take our precious little miracle home! She came home on October 16, 2005, almost 3 months old, and just 3 days before her due date! She weighed all of 5 pounds and 2 ounces, and was swimming in the preemie clothes that we had for her! She remained on oxygen until she was a little over 4 months old.  And the rest is history! She’s been nearly perfectly healthy since we brought her home, with the exception of the occasional cold, and some allergic reactions to some antibiotics that she had to take for an ear infection when she was almost 2 and an ingrown toenail earlier this year. Fast forward to 5 years old, and here we are! And now she is starting a new adventure next week…Kindergarten!!

If you made it this far, thank you for reading! Now onto the pictures.