Pictures

Here are a few pictures of Jenna and some with her and Gavin. She is such a good baby and Gav is the best big brother ever!! He loves her so much!

We are home!!

Well we finally made it back to Richfield after a very long month!! Jenna was released from the hospital on Friday afternoon!! I felt like I was stealing a baby! It was a very different feeling taking her home from the hospital- only those that have been in this situation will understand that feeling! We took her to my Grandma Bartons to meet her big brother who was very excited to meet her! He was so cute with her he held her forever and every time I asked if he wanted me to take her he would say no. It was so sweat! He is going to be the best brother for Jenna. Grandma and Aunt Katie also got to be the first to meet her! It was also very weird leaving Nanny Barts house- we had started to feel right at home there! Gavin will miss her so much! We are so thankful for all that she did for us We love you Grandma!!

Being home has been nice, we are starting to get into a routine. Kurt is back to work so it is just me and two kids- so weird. I have to say that things are going pretty good though! Jenna is the best baby- very calm! She did have to come home on a tiny bit of oxygen and also with the feeding tube. She is taking most her feedings from the bottle but still gets so tired that she can't do them all. Ryan had to make the comment that we should have gotten the cordless model!! I agree!

I know there are so many people who want to see and meet her, but we were strongly advised not to have visitors. They told us children are not allowed to come around her except for her brother. They also confined us to our house for the next 6 months. I might go crazy- but will do what I need to to make sure that Jenna stays healthy and grows strong!! So if you are in the neighborhood feel free to drop a Coke off on the door step- it might help me keep my sanity!!

Please know that we are so thankful for all the comments and prayers that were made for our family- we feel so blessed!

(blogger wont let me add pictures- I will try later)

Hot Chick!!

The NICU nurse took this picture a week or so ago of Jenna, it is so funny! She has the cutest smile and believe it or not those are kid sunglasses!!! These nurses have been so great with Jenna, the one gave her a scrapbook page that is SO cute and she put so much time into it. It has been so great to know that Jenna is in the best hands!

Jenna has been doing so good! She is on 12 hour request today, which means that she has to wake up on her own to eat her feedings. We went at 8am this morning and she woke up right before 9am and we fed her a bottle and she drank the whole thing, they will now let her go until 1pm for her next feeding. If she does this good, then we will go on 24 hour request and stay over at the hospital. For that request she has too take all her feedings (required amount of ML a day). We are really hoping that she will do wonderful and we will be able to take her home within the next few days!

Jenna and Gavin

On Friday we asked the nurse if she would hold Jenna up to a window and let Gavin peek in at her, she said YES!! I went and got Gavin from the waiting room and told him he could meet Jenna, he was so excited he ran down the hallway so fast! He jumped on Kurt's shoulders and got a good look. He was so happy to meet her- I started to cry! I know what a baby:) It was just so sweat to see his face when he saw her for the first time. Jenna is still trying so hard to eat- she has a different suck pattern and it is hard for her to get the milk out even though she is sucking so hard! We will keep trying and working on getting her home.

Progress and frustrations!

Well, I haven't posted for a while because we found out something about Jenna that just killed me! When things really get to me or make me feel sad I tend to just hold them in until I am able to deal with them. And that is what I have been doing, learning to deal with things. We found out last week that Jenna's Optic nerve never developed in one of her eyes. When the doctor told me I said okay, so she will just need glasses or surgery to fix it? I was being hopeful. He said that she will never see out of that eye, there is not a fix for it. My heart just broke, after all she has already been through and overcame I just looked at her sweat face and thought for the first time in a while WHY? Why her sight? Out of everything she has, this for some reason was the tip of the iceberg! It took me a lot of tears that night and some prayers to know that this is in her plan- she will overcome it! We will make the best with it.

Other than that Jenna is doing great!! She is such a sweat baby all the nurses just love her! The doctors would like to keep her for at least another week- she needs to gain some weight and also make progress with her feedings. I got frustrated over the weekend because she wasn't doing great with eating, but Monday was much better! She is staying awake more and able try harder. She takes a bottle alot better than the nursing, so we are trying both. She just needs to get bigger and stronger!

Kurt has been sick since Sunday so they wont even let him in the NICU. It has been hard on him not to see her for 3 days. Hopefully he will be getting better soon so that we can work on getting her home together!

Gavin still has no clue where the baby is or why we decided to move in with Grandma Barton. He has done great though, he loves being up here and playing with Grandma when we go to the hospital. He is going to be the best big brother ever!!

Thanks for all the thoughts, prayers and gifts they have been much appreciated! We are so lucky to have such great families and friends, and also the Gospel. What would we do without our faith and prayers???

Yesterday we tried to give Gavin a normal day:) As best we could anyway!
We got up and had breakfast and then went to the Discovery Park by my Grandmas house. He had such a good time playing, he even found a friend there to play with. I have felt so bad that he has been out of his element and pushed around between Grandmas and us. He is really confused on where the baby is. He sees the pictures but still thinks she is in my belly:) I just love both these kids so much! I never thought it was possible!