Update on Emily

-Emily is now up to 2 pounds!!

-She is getting 15 ml. of milk every three hours

-She is no longer on any IV's or pick lines, which is great as it will decrease a risk of infections.

-She is only needing about 30% oxygen most of the time from her ventilator.

-She is cute, fiesty and is already showing that she has a BIG personality! (uh oh! Better watch out! Just kidding.)

-Some concerning news is that Emily had a head ultrasound a week ago and it shows a level 2 brain bleed on the right side. There's nothing to do except wait and pray that she will have no long term effects from it and that it will get absorbed and won't increase. We will know more in about two weeks when they do another head ultrasound. Also the nurse practioner informed us that on the left side of her head, the ultrasound showed that there might be slight chance she might have PVL- Periventricular Leukomalacia. PVL is caused by insufficient blood flow to parts of an infants brain before birth, at delivery, or after birth.

If you would like to know more about PVL here is one website that talks about it:

http://www.cpparent.org/pvl/babyzone.htm

Even though Emily might have a slight chance of having this, Ryan and I are still optomistic about her doing so well thus far and are not too concerned about it. We just feel that everything will be alright. Yes, we have our moments of worry, and sadness to see our little baby girl going through so much, but we also feel so blessed to have her and Ethan join our family. I am grateful that Ethan is sealed to us and we will be able to see him again someday. We are also so grateful for the progress Emily is making.

Ryan and I went down to Salt Lake to be with Emily this weekend and while we were down there we got to hold her for the very first time! (Saturday, May 23rd). Our friends Skye and Jordan have a little boy named, Asher, who was also born very early two years ago, May 23rd actually! She told me she got to hold Asher for the first time about a month after he was born. I was kind of hesitant at first to ask; one being I didn't want to expose her too much to the outside air or maybe give her something accidently. (You just never know!) And two, I was just nervous to ask, thinking the nurses might think I am crazy! Which is probably partly true. ;)Our beautiful baby girl!

I am really not sure who Emily looks like...?

I loved her matching hair bow and blanket.

Ryan holding Emily for the first time.

Emily had her eyes open for a short time and it was so cute to see her eyes looking up at me. I don't know how much she can see if she can really see anything at all, but it was great holding her and looking into her face for the first time.

Happy Birthday Mom!

My Mom with Madi And with Avery

Just wanted to give a SHOUT OUT to my mom today and wish her a very Happy Birthday!!!

We Love you Mom!!!

oXxoOxX

Four eyes!

Avery thought she was SO funny wearing these glasses around the house. The next day she went, found them and put them on again to see if we would laugh again. She definitely knows how to get our attention! She has such a sense of humor this one...

This picture of Avery makes me laugh! I love her little chin rolls! hehe!




I bought a 3D book long before the twins were born and put it up in Ryan's closet so I wouldn't forget where I put it. Well Ryan's closet was looking pretty cluttered, so he cleaned it out (ok, I MADE him clean it out! haha!) and when he did, we found the 3D book that I forgot about (and told myself I wouldn't). It came with two pairs of 3D glasses so as you look at the pages it comes to life. "Very awesome," as Madi says. The girls had fun wearing and modeling them around the house... Avery was upset because her glasses kept falling off, so I had to tape them to her head.


Madi you are so cute!! You look like a rockstar!

"Who me?! Ah, geez thanks!"


"I guess I am pretty cute..." :)

Daddy's girls

They love playing with Dad. They are both daddy's girls. And Avery loves to come up and sit on Ryan's head, which makes him laugh so hard. It's so funny to watch. And Avery gets a big kick out of it.

Emily's Progress...

Emily is doing awesome! We are so happy that she is progressing and improving each day. Emily is up to 10 ml. of milk every three hours! (that's two teaspoons). She is peeing and pooping ;) and her oxygen levels have been good. Way to go Emily!!!

This is an email I got from Rachel, who is one of our favorite nurses at University of Utah hospital that takes care of Emily.

Rachel writes, "...She(Emily) is looking good! Loves her belly! I can't believe how far she has come in this last week! Growing stronger and stronger everyday..."

Also Rachel sent a few cute pictures of Emily, that she took last night then emailed to me.

Thanks for taking such good care of our baby girl Rachel!

Ahhh...SPRING is in the Air!

I am sure I can speak for all of us moms and say, WE have been patiently (nail biting, window watching, pacing our living room floor,) waiting for spring to get here and STAY here! I think it is now safe to say, that Spring is here and I think it's going to STAY here...for a little while at least. (Just watch, it's going to snow tomorrow because I said that) And it will be summer in no time! WHOO-HOO!!! The girls love to play outside and even more, Mommy loves it when they play outside. ;)

Avery just cracks me up on the swing with her cute smile, funny looks and sense of humor...

Avery trying to pump her legs

Avery's got the wind blowing through her hair and posing down, like a true baby model. :)

Madisen is so sweet to pick mommy flowers everyday to put on the kitchen table. She also likes to remind me that her favorite color is yellow. Thanks Madi!

It will be so fun when Emily can join them outside in a few years to play!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALAN!! :)

Our Sweet Baby Boy

There is a non-profit organization called, Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, in Utah (and actually I think it's across the world...??) that takes pictures of infants that pass away from about 25 weeks and up. Ethan was 25 weeks and 2 days old when he passed away. So we were able to get a professional photographer to come and take pictures for us to remember him. This was the best present any mother could receive! I will cherish these pictures forever!(Thank you Heidi for letting me know about this.)

Jessica Kartchner was the photographer, she lives in Salt Lake City, and she did an amazing job on these pictures! She also made us this collage of pictures for us to hand out to family and friends. It turned out beautiful. Thank you so much Jessica!