Happy New Year!

And just like that 2017 is behind us.  It was a year full of adventure for sure--a trip to Europe, our first year of marriage, a couple home renovations and a pre-term baby to boot!  Here is hoping 2018 provides us with a little bit more calmness--which is maybe a lot to ask considering we will be bringing a little bitty baby home soon enough.  The new year is always a great time to make resolutions, but its hard to even think about things to resolve to do, when I feel like Thanksgiving and Christmas just rushed by in the blink of an eye.  The days are certainly long but the time flies by.  How is that we have had a baby girl in the NICU for almost 7 weeks?   That is crazy!  Also, how is it that we have had a baby for almost 7 weeks--even crazier!  So my 2018 resolutions are simple--bring my baby girl home, soak up all the snuggles I missed, and maybe try to loose this baby weight :)

Our daughter is growing like a wildflower. I feel like we were just so excited for her to get to 4 pounds and now she is quickly approaching 5 pounds!   She is still doing wonderfully with regulating her temperature and taking her feeds.  The girl likes to eat (she might get that from her mom)!  She is killing it every time she gets to nurse also.  Our biggest struggle is her fight to decide if she wants to eat or sleep--her two favorite things!  But once she finally latches, it is hard to get her off either the breast or the bottle.  She burps like a champ, no like seriously sometimes I look at Marc to see if that was him.  I think these pictures show the difference in her weight a little bit better than numbers.  The first one is when she was 1 month on December 18th.  The second one was taken on December 31st, less than two weeks differences but look how much better she fills out her outfit!  Preemie clothes may soon be a thing of the past!

She had another Echo yesterday and the clot near her heart is the same size as before, which is the hope (well that or that it would shrink), but we have been told it can be weeks, months or even a year before the clot will be fully gone so we may be following up on that for months to come.  So though it sounds scary, it actually is not.  Most babies have clots around their heart but there is just never any kind of scan to even see that it is there, but like most things in the NICU, once it has been established, it has to be followed through on.  Her red blood cell count is also low, but again that is pretty normal as she continues to grow, she may just be growing faster than her body can make the red blood cells.  So they watch it and make sure she catches up, so hopefully she will (she did once before).  The big news this week was that her pic line got clogged so it had to be pulled so for a few days she again had to have the scalp IV (mommy's least favorite place for an IV on her precious baby), but one of her nurses was able to get the pic line back in her arm again yesterday so we are thankful for that!

Scalp IV but also look at those eyes! 

Milk drunk! 

So mainly these days, it is no news is good news as I have noticed my posts are further and further apart.  Just know we are soaking up more and more snuggles with our baby girl!  We continue to appreciate all the prayers, texts, thoughts, etc.  Though things are going well now, Olivia still has a long road ahead of her including trying to stay well during cold and flu season when she has little to no immune system.  Many many thanks! 💜