And Now For the Good News!!

Okay, okay... so mom and dad had a rough week.... enough with the snivelling from us... I know the real reason anyone reads this blog is for the Avery news :)

Apparently, Avery didn't get the Memo that we were going to have a bad week this week, and ended up having a great one! She has not only done well on the human milk fortifier this time around...she's been doing great! The past week, she's gained anywhere from 1- 2.2 oz per day!! That's a lot for someone who only weighs a few ounces to begin with! As of her weighing last night, she weighs 4 lbs 2.2 oz... which more than doubles her dainty birth-weight of 1 lb. 15 oz.!! Steph attributes the great weight gain to all the skin-to-skin holding time she's been getting in...which I'll totally buy in to. There is nothing more right than the sight of that little girl nuzzled up to Stephanie's chest. We're pretty sure that we can actually watch her put on the grams when she's skin-to-skin! So, I think that I know what sport I am going to enroll her in first...

(this is a picture we took of her the night she hit 4 lbs...)

Another huge step is that she's been moved from an isolet into an open crib. To do that, she had to be able to keep her own body temp. regulated without the isolet...and she passed the little trial period, during which they kept the isolet on hand, just in case. So, she's a big kid now, in a normal open crib like you see in the well-baby nursuries (or what we like to call "fat baby nursuries")!! It's nice, because when we first came into the NICU, all the "older" babies were in open-cribs, and then, they went home. Back then, it seemed so far away...but now, there's a light at the end of the tunnel.


I just saw online that the Emmys were tonight...which totally gave us some perspective- because Steph NEVER misses an awards show! We have been a little caught up with life lately (and we actually don't even have cable in our apartment at all...)Of course, someday, life will come back to some semblance of normal (I know...all of you with kids are itching to correct me when I say things like that ;) ).. but life tends to bring you to points where only one or two things CAN even matter to you... and though it seems even more draining than when you're focusing on the normal hundred things in life... it's nice. So, instead of watching the red-carpet tonight...listening to the reporters ask all the stars "Who are you wearing???"... we got to actually dress our little star up in her first outfit!

("Avery...who are you wearing??? - Carters, of course!)

Another big step is that at her last eye exam, the doctor said that she was in the clear when it comes to worrying about ROP, and that she had mature eyes- her retinas are attached. So, that's awesome. So, her eyes are not only super cute... they are as functional as they would be normally at this point. No worries, though...she still does the cross-eyed thing, which still freaks Steph out!

So... other stats, she's 7 weeks old, as of Friday. She's just about 16.5 inches long. She's completely on room air. She bottle feeds 3 times a day...or she's allowed to anyway. Half the time, she does well...half the time, she takes about 10 ccs, and then falls asleep or starts spitting it out. So...it's a slower go on that front...but that's really her next big hurdle before she can come home.

All in all...we are still so grateful at how blessed we are. She's such a pleasant little sweetheart, and she's doing so well. Despite all the things that keep coming our way outside the NICU...as long as things keep going well in there...it's more than we could ever ask for...

Enjoy this week's slideshow!