Monday, April 13, 2009

Happy (Late) Easter!

I definitely had intentions of posting a "Happy Easter" blog; however, it didn't quite happen. The updates on Elise are (a) she's up to 34 cc every three hours and (b) she's doing very well. We praise the Lord every day for how well she is doing and were recently told she's the healthiest baby in the portion of the NICU that she's in. Soon she'll be moved to the infamous "Tower" or East NICU where babies go who just need a bit more time to develop before they are ready to go home. Per the general estimates, we have about 3 1/2 weeks left!

Each day Kit and I get a little more independent with Elise's care. We still check with the nurses before starting her care (temperature and diaper change), but otherwise we're able to hold, kangaroo, nurse, etc. as we desire and as we can tell Elise's is up for. It's been so uplifting to be able to get her out of bed ourselves and to feel more like her parents and not just observers who get to help every once in a while.

We spent much of our day yesterday at the NICU and enjoyed a nice Easter dinner at Subway. :)

Kit went back to work today and enjoyed himself. He's such a schedule-oriented guy and likes to have regularity so I think it'll be good for him to have some of that normalcy for a while. He'll take a bit more time off once Ellie comes home as well so that we can have some family time.

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How cute is this? Can you tell how excited Kit is to be a dad?


Totally zonked out in dad's arms.


Both thinking intently.
(Click on the photo to enlarge if you can't see Ellie's hand on her chin.)


Big yawn.


Kit aunt Rae made Ellie socks, and I finally remember to actually take pictures of Ellie in them.


She really likes pink.


Aren't these socks adorable? Rae's so talented!


Ellie had enough of the paparazzi.


Hi-ya! She tried using her kicking skills to end the photo shoot.


I couldn't ever find a preemie Easter dress small enough for Ellie so this little sleeper was the next best thing (thanks to Jeannette). This was after all the sock photos though so Ellie wasn't really up for me actually putting it on so I tried to just make it look like she had it on.


She decided to reveal the truth that the sleeper was simply lying on top of her.


Kit tried kangaroo care with Elise for the first time on Easter.


And she pulled his chest hair. Hehe.


They were both completely enamored with each other.


And then she'd pull again.


Daddy and daughter both loved the cuddle.


Our very own little Easter egg.


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Please pray for Michelle, a gal from my work. Her water broke a couple of weeks ago at only 29 weeks. She's been in the hospital since then and her baby girl was born yesterday morning. From what I hear, her little girl is doing well and weighed 3 pounds, 4 ounces at birth. I believe they're estimating that she'll have about a 4 week NICU stay.


10 comments:

Tina said...

Darling... Happy Easter to you as well..

Unknown said...

CUTE PICS!!!! Ellie is ADORABLE!!!! And SO BIG!! Yahoo:)

And I LOVE the chest hair Kit!!! Very Nice:):) Ya know, she wouldn't pull it if you'd shave it off...just a thought.

Mandy Gramkow said...

YAY Ellie! Keep growing! Yeah, this is a weird part of the journey - where they're "feeder growers" :) But I loved the fact that there wasn't a lot of "new news" just needed to keep growing! Yippee! She looks beautiful and I hope you guys had a great Easter!

Amanda said...

Love the Fashion Show! Too cute! It is nice once you can kind of pick your baby up and do your own thing without being constantly dependent on the nurses. It's hard to feel like a parent when you are always asking for permission to change your baby's diaper, or hold them, etc. My hubby and I got a good chuckle at how Ellie was pulling on Daddy's chest hair. Our Cadence used to do that all the time to Noah. At one point she turned herself horizontal and the nurses joked that it looked like she was trying to latch on.

http://therowanblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/ill-be-good-if-you-do-it-my-way.html

She's just precious you two, so happy that she's going to make it up to the Tower soon. And before you know it, she'll be home!

Claire said...

I *love* the hand on chin picture! Too cute!

Cxx

Heather and Travis said...

The pictures are wonderful! I absolutely love the socks.

I am so happy that Ellie is doing so well. That is such great news!

Isn't is great that you can finally do "parent" things? Of course the nurses and doctors take really good care of the babies, but there is nothing like being able to care for your own child.

Stephanie said...

The pic of Elise and her daddy staring at each other is priceless..that's definitely frameworthy!

I'm keeping you all in my prayers....she is just absolutely adorable!!

Anonymous said...

Love the pics! Also, Kate has that sleeper with the little lamb on it, and we love it. So cute to see Ellie in it (ok, not really in it, but it's still sooo cute with it "near" her.)

Saying prayers for your co-worker...and of course, for you all every day.

Martha

Becca Sue Congdon said...

Thanks for sharing about your friend from work, Emily. If you talk to her - let her know she's got a whole crowd of prayer warriors on her team. :)

I'm so happy to see how much Ellie is growing! She's really ramped up - yay for 1+ oz a day! WOOHOO!

We love you guys!

Becca Sue & Daniel & Ethan

Always A New Day said...

I have been following your blog from Kelly's Korner. She is getting so big and looks great!!

Congratulations on a beautiful baby girl!! Loved the pics!!