Roxie Jo

Just a Hodge Podge of Info...

noreply@blogger.com (Deidre) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:28:00 +0000

Ya know, we thought Roxie was a handful when she learned to crawl......Ha! Let me just tell you – this kid is constantly on the move and into EVERYTHING she can get her hands on. She truly is an ornery little thing. Below are just a few fun moments I’ve managed to catch over the past month or so.

I think this first set of pictures was right at the end of February. And while this was not necessarily one of those “fun” moments, these pictures make me laugh every time I look at them. This was one morning after waking her up, and as you can see, she wasn’t real thrilled about the whole situation.....

And here she is playing with Daddy at home. She just loves getting a bouncy ride on Daddy’s shoulders (and other than when she pulls his hair or slaps him in the head, I think Daddy likes it just as much as she does)......

A few weeks ago, I decided Roxie needed the old fashioned Corn Popper push toy. Even after showing her how you are supposed to use it, she still likes to do her own thing with it which cracks me up so much I decided to catch it on film.....

She’s been starting to dance every here and there – or “shake it” as we call it. I only managed to catch a second or two of her dancing before Daddy walked in and she got distracted. But here she is in breaking it on down in front of the Sing Along Stage.... (the video should still play, even if this just looks like a black screen)

In the past couple weeks or so, my obsession with adorable cloth diapers has been revived – thanks to a co-worker (thanks Jodi!). I am loving me some Bum Genius diapers! Now, whether that’s a good thing for my wallet is still out for debate, but just look at how cute these freaking things are.....

While taking the pictures above, I caught a good one of all the teeth she’s been working on. I don’t know if you can see the bottom ones very well, but there are FOUR teeth in there...

And this past Saturday, Roxie got to see her cousin Charlotte again at Charlotte’s 1st birthday party. I think she had a lot of fun with her cousin! Lucky for Roxie, the party theme was rubber duckies. And this kid loves her some rubber duckies – especially ones she can fit in her mouth! Somehow I managed to get a really good picture of her in her little dress right before these two ducks went into her mouth.....

Her and Charlotte - trying to figure each other out....

And what we thought was probably the cutest moment of the day - their tea party....

And although they seemed to be having a wonderful time with these blocks, I think the adults might have had more fun than the kids....

And to end a full day of playing - some more playing with Cameron (my friend Sarah’s little man).....

One Year Already?!

noreply@blogger.com (Deidre) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:46:00 +0000

One year...... I honestly can’t believe it’s been that long since we sat in the hospital NICU on pins and needles looking at our tiny 2 pound baby girl and hoping she would be ok. It seems like so long ago, but it’s true - Roxie is now ONE year old! In fact, she’s been a year old for oh...about a month now. (I know, I’m slow getting in here.)

Her official birthday was on February 1, but since that was also Super Bowl Sunday, we decided to have a little party for her on Saturday instead. And since we are major procrastinators, and didn’t get the word out until late in the game, many of the folks invited were unable to make it. But.... we partied on down regardless and had a great time!

Her "oh-so-cute" #1 cake (made by G-Ma Laurie) with her own personal puppy dog cake in the top corner.....

Opening some presents with Daddy & Grandma JuJu.... (that tongue stuck out all day!)

Unfortunately, Grandma Julie's gift was the same one we bought and already put together the night before...... :(

Opening Grandma & Grandpa Eden's gift....

....a big, fluffy teddy bear......

Just beginning to dig into her puppy cake....

And I didn't think she'd have much interest in it......

Apparently, it's fun to put cake in your ears..... who knew?!

Back at home after partying all day. With Mommy & Daddy's gift......

And in more recent news..... it looks like the little green walker has done its job because Roxie is now walking on her own! Right now, it isn't an all the time kind of thing, but she's perfecting it more and more every day........... (click to play)

We are so proud!!! :)

Roxie's First Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Deidre) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:30:00 +0000

Well, Roxie’s first Christmas has come and gone and we’ve been left in a sea of cardboard boxes from the many toys she accumulated!

Just a small list of what she got for Christmas:

Pajamas... A Cabbage Patch Kid... Build-A-Bear... V-tech Dancing Tower... Fisher Price Sing Along Stage... Rocking horse... Clothes... Leap Frog Bongo Drum...Etc, etc, etc.....!!

Yeah, she’s got toys for days! And, of course, a fair amount of them beep, honk, sing, and just plain make noise......all the things parents love. :) Ya know, maybe it’s because we’re still new to this whole noise-making toy thing, but we are ok with them. They make her happy, so whatever! (now, I’m not saying that won’t change in the coming years, but for now, we’re good!)

Below are some pictures from all the Christmas celebrations we had.

THE ALMACK CHRISTMAS
(Aaron's mom - Julie's - side of the family)
on 12-21-08....

A couple of proud Grandmas....

Opening her very first Christmas present ever (a glowworm from Great Grandma Betty)...

Either she was exhausted or she had too much egg nog...

Playing on the rocking horse Grandma Julie gave her...

CHRISTMAS MORNING
AT HOME WITH MOMMY & DADDY...

Well, well, what do we have here..... (she loves this thing)

Apparently, she likes to roll around on her presents before opening them....

Playing with some gifts from Grandpa Max....

CHRISTMAS EVENING
AT GRANDMA & GRANDPA EDEN'S HOUSE....

I really don't have much of a comment for this one except to say - Thank God, this wasn't Aaron's gift....

All those presents around her, and take a look at what she's playing with....
Meeting her new Build-A-Bear from Aunt Brianna....
And look who is now dressed in Roxie's "going home from the hospital outfit"..... (it was too sentimental to get rid of and this was just the right size!)

Playing with one of the "noise-makers" Grandma picked out! :)
Surrounded by just *some* of the loot.....
Grandma Laurie and Roxie..... (now known as G-ma) :)

And at last -- the family picture......

The Kid's WILD I Tell You!

noreply@blogger.com (Deidre) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:00:00 +0000

That's right, this child is a wild hare! She is all over the place. I have no idea how she has the energy to just go, go, go all the time, but she does. In fact, I was actually asked once if we had to pay our babysitter double time! (nope, thank God, we don't!)

Roxie has learned how to pull herself up and does it all the time now. Below is a picture of the night she did it for the first time (probably 1-2 weeks before Thanksgiving or so). As you can see from the second photo below, she was awfully proud of this new trick!

And if that wasn't enough, she has also perfected the crawl. She'd been doing the army crawl for quite awhile and got around pretty quickly using that method, but now the army crawl is a thing of the past and has been since a couple weeks before Thanksgiving. Here she is crawling around the living room....well, and going for after the camera!

And here is a quick snapshot of Roxie on her first Thanksgiving wearing her Thanksgiving bib from Grandma Laurie.....

The look on her face in this one cracks me up....

And speaking of Grandma Laurie, Roxie's first night away from Mommy & Daddy was a couple weeks ago when she stayed with Grandma Laurie. I was so upset when she left, I had to break out the camera and get a picture of our big girl as she was heading to Grandma's house. I think maybe she was confused as to why Mommy looked so sad......

And Her First Election Day...

noreply@blogger.com (Deidre) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:30:00 +0000

On November 4th, Roxie and I voted for the first time ever! (Yes, it's true, I had never voted before.) We were both nervous, but got through it just fine and were so proud of ourselves, we took pictures wearing our "I Voted" stickers! Ha!!

Roxie's First Halloween!!

noreply@blogger.com (Deidre) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:15:00 +0000

Roxie's first Halloween has come and gone and she couldn't have been cuter! :)
While she didn't get to go trick or treating this year, we can't wait to take her next year. (I think it would have been a little too obvious exactly who would be eating all that candy!)

Here she is trying on her little Black Kitty costume the day we got it in the mail....

And a couple of the professional ones we had taken.....

A Day In the Life....

noreply@blogger.com (Deidre) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:29:00 +0000

I got a few good shots of Roxie this past Saturday afternoon and thought I'd share - even though she'll hate me for this someday! :)

~~A SATURDAY AFTERNOON WITH ROXIE~~

12:00pm - Bath time fun at the kitchen sink...........

12:10pm – Getting dried off and ready to be dressed.........

12:45pm – Apparently bath time and a bottle was more than she could handle....

1:30-ish pm – Back at it, playing underneath the end table.....

THREE months later!

noreply@blogger.com (Deidre) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:45:00 +0000

Just thought I’d update the site with a few pictures for those of you who haven’t seen Roxie – or any pictures of her – for awhile.

Roxie is now 7 and 1/2 months old (4 and 1/2 adjusted though) and picking up weight - I believe she is around 13 pounds or so now. We've been through quite a few "firsts" since my last post as well! And as you can see from the pictures below, she still looks just like Daddy! :)

***********************************************

Mid-June -- I tried giving her some runny cereal for the first time and it didn't go too well...........

July 4th (or close to) -- in her very own pool for the first time..... (she didn’t like it real well!)

Mid-July -- Just one picture from a photo shoot with Mommy......

Beginning of August -- Just hanging out in her room......

8/7/08 –- Heading into the state fair with Daddy....

Checking out the donkies (mules?) at the state fair.....

8/8/08 –- I'd been trying these on for weeks, and they finally fit -- first day in shoes!

Mid-August or so -- Not the very first time, but the same weekend she started to roll over!

8/31/08 -- At home trying on her Princess robe to see if it would fit......

9/6/08 -- Very first bubble bath....

It's been forever...

noreply@blogger.com (Deidre) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:36:00 +0000

I know I haven't posted anything for quite awhile, but like I said, there's not really a whole lot of new news to share. But then again, I guess most of you would probably just like to see a few new pictures though, huh? But I'll get to that as well!

Anyway, to pick up where my last post left you hanging, Roxie DID end up having to have hernia surgery not long after that last post. The doctor went in to fix the one she had on the left side, and found another on the right. Luckily, he was able to fix them both at the same time though. After surgery, we had to spend the day and night at the hospital (Peyton Manning Children's Hospital) where we all got to meet Indy 500 racecar driver Dan Wheldon, who very graciously signed an autograph for her and took a picture with all of us......(I had to take a picture of the actual photograph, so it's bad quality, but you get the idea)

She's also been to the neurological doctor - whom all preemies go to see at some point. They do some little tests to see how her development is coming along, and she tested low when they took her actual age into consideration, and high according to her adjusted age (which is what she would be if she had been full term). Thankfully, her development seems to be right on track with where she should be.

Roxie got to meet her little cousin, Charlotte for the first time in mid-May. Charlotte was born on or very close to the day we brought Roxie home (about March 30th, I think). So while Roxie is technically older, Charlotte was a full term baby, so she is sort of older. (it gets confusing!) Anyway, here are a few pictures from their meeting - or as we called it, Roxie's first playdate.......

Other than that, I celebrated my first Mother's Day as the mother of an actual human child and not just the puppy children. :) And yesterday, Aaron got to celebrate his first Father's Day. Roxie and I did our best to try and make it special for him. She wore her "My heart belongs to Daddy" onesie and gave him a DAD picture frame with her photo in it (wearing the same shirt). Here's that picture (taken on Friday, 6/13) along with another from our photo shoot.......

She's been smiling a lot lately also, and I finally managed to catch one of her big gummy grins on film. So here are a few more just for the heck of it that were taken about 2 weeks ago......

aaahhh...Life is Good.

noreply@blogger.com (Deidre) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:13:00 +0000

I know it's been awhile since I've updated, but as you can all probably imagine, we've just been getting used to being parents. Or maybe I should rephrase that to say that we are getting used to getting up at all hours to a fussy child, changing diapers, and just trying to figure out what the heck she's crying for! Ha! No really, we're absolutely loving it. I read a saying somewhere that said, "A child fills a space in your heart you never knew was empty." I know it's cheesey, but I have to admit, that it seems so true. We love this kid to death! :)

As for how she is doing, she's as cute as ever and seems to be pretty happy. For the most part, she doesn't really cry much unless we don't feed her right when she decides she's hungry. Or if she decides that what we fed her wasn't enough. She doesn't spit up (except maybe 2 times) and doesn't have big nasty blow-outs (thank God!).

She does manage to keep me up at night grunting and groaning and bearing down (loudly!). Apparently, it's just a preemie thing - or so we're told. But it seems awfully excessive sometimes. In fact, we're wondering if she's grunted her way to a hernia. I discovered it this past week and we went to the doctor a couple days later. He said he thought it was most likely a hernia and has since referred us to another doctor who specializes in that sort of thing. We're seeing him at the end of the month, and just hoping that she doesn't end up needing surgery.

For now though, she doesn't seem bothered by it and appears to be doing very well. I think she's been having fun trying out all her new toys this week.....

Here she is sitting outside the other day enjoying the weather - and the vibrating bouncy chair!

And looking a bit freaked out in her other bouncy chair.....

Hanging out in the pack n' play.....

And finally, after the emergency bath last night - when we found out that Huggies diapers apparently SUCK....... (strangely enough, she slightly resembles Jabba the Hut here!)

FINALLY!!

noreply@blogger.com (Deidre) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:34:00 +0000

It seemed like it would never happen, but after two L...O...N...G months, Roxie is finally home with us!

We did a "room-in" with her at the hospital on Saturday night, and that went really well. The nurse on duty that day said she hadn't gotten her to eat very large amounts, but somehow we had her finishing nearly every bottle she took that night. Maybe she was trying to make Mommy and Daddy look good so she could come home. :) Here are a few pictures from Saturday night....

She also got weighed as usual (5 pounds!!) and Daddy gave her a bath...

On Sunday morning, after getting to catch up on a bit of sleep missed over the night, we headed back down to the NICU where Roxie's doctor told us she would be going home that day. Of course, we had her going home outfit all ready to go and got her dressed.....

And we were on our way....

That's it for now. I believe there's a diaper calling my name. :)

Still Waiting...

noreply@blogger.com (Deidre) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 12:34:00 +0000

Well, it's been over five days now, and Roxie isn't home yet. :(
Like I said before, it's all up to her and she will be the one to decide when she's ready to come home. She's getting very close though. She's been taking an average of about 5 out of 8 whole bottle feedings a day. The other 3 are about half from the bottle and half down the feeding tube. The problem is that she gets worn out easily and wants to go to sleep before the bottle is empty, so she sort of gives up. But all the nurses and doctors think she will most likely be coming home by this next weekend.

As for her weight, she has been gaining very consistently and is up to 4 lbs, 7 oz. These past few days, she's been gaining about 2 ounces a day. You can definitely see a difference in the look of her face now.....

I can't believe I'm about to post this next picture, but it makes me laugh, so here we go.
Yes folks, this is my husband -- dear God help us all (especially Roxie)........

Lots of News!

noreply@blogger.com (Deidre) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:15:00 +0000

Oh wow, where to start!?
How about Thursday (3-13)……Roxie’s doctor called in the afternoon like usual to let me know how she was doing but then proceeded to tell me that the NICU was full and they desperately needed space. So, with our permission, they transferred her to St. Vincent in Carmel. Since we live closer to Carmel (and work there), a transfer was great news to us. So as of Thursday afternoon, she’s been at her new “home” where she’s most likely getting paid more attention to since there are only a couple babies. On her first night there, the doctor told us that we could expect to bring her home probably around the first full week of April.

On Sunday, one of her other doctors decided to move her into what we call her “big girl bed”, but it’s what they call a bassinette. (in reality, it’s a clear plastic tub!)

In order to move into one of these, the baby has to be regulating their own body temperature, and she has been doing it wonderfully. I must say, it is so nice not to have to look at your own baby through glass!

Also on Sunday, the same doctor said that if Roxie keeps gaining weight and gets the bottle feeding down a little better, she could possibly go home in as little as FIVE DAYS! It really all depends on her though, so we're trying not to get our hopes up too high yet. The nurses are working with her and usually try to get her to take a bottle at every feeding, but she doesn’t always cooperate. She’s getting there though. So it may or may not be 5 days, but it should be soon that we get to bring her home.

When she DOES come home, she’s got herself an awesome nursery to sleep in. We finally got it finished and could not be more proud of it. In fact, I think we both want to move in to her room! You really have to see it in person to get the full effect, but here’s some pictures of how it turned out….(click each to enlarge)

noreply@blogger.com (Deidre) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:09:00 +0000

Well, our little chunker is sure picking up the weight. She has now got herself a nice little second chin and tips the scale at a whopping 4 pounds & 3 ounces. :) It's amazing to watch her grow and try to remind ourselves that she would actually still be in my belly for at least another month. She doesn't even seem that tiny to us anymore at all, until we think about the fact that a newborn baby is typically twice her weight. She's getting there though.

Her feedings have been going well since starting her back on milk. They start off at a small amount and increase it every day if things go well, and luckily, things have gone very well. In fact, she has been learning how to take a bottle and has been taking them fairly regularly over this past week. Occasionally, she decides she's not that into it, and they have to use the tube again (it's now in her nose as opposed to her mouth though). Today, she took a whole bottle for Daddy....

And, as you can see, she's back to wearing the nasal cannula (the oxygen tube in her nose). The other day, after her feeding, she wasn't getting quite the oxygen she needed and her monitors kept going off. They warned us before we left for the night that they may have to put the tube back on, but we were still a little discouraged to see it on her the next day. They've told us since the beginning that being in the NICU is like taking 2 steps forward and 1 step back, but even though she's doing fine, the steps back still suck.

Oops! It's been awhile....

noreply@blogger.com (Deidre) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 20:16:00 +0000

Well, wouldn't ya know it - a few hours after my last post, the doctor called with an update. Apparently, Roxie's belly looked to be puffier than normal which could be a sign of something called Necrotizing Enteroculitis (NEC for short). It's basically an infection of the bowels that a lot of preemies get since their bowels are so small and fragile still. They did x-rays and still weren't sure if she had it or not, but just to be sure, they stopped her feedings, gave her an IV (for nutrition in the meantime) and started her on antibiotics. The day after, the doctor told me that one of the radiologists he showed the x-rays to said she most likely did have NEC and that they should continue doing the things they were doing to treat it. But the poor thing has been without "real" food for about a week. On Sunday, I guess she decided that since she wasn't getting fed anyway, she could do without her feeding tube. So...she ripped it all the way out and off her face all by herself! (and it goes all the way down to her stomach!)

According to the doctors, she is fine now and all her x-rays look normal. Her last round of antibiotics was the other night, so they were planning to start her back on a small amount of milk sometime Tuesday.

Other than that, she's been learning how to suck on her pacifier.....

And she had another bath that the nurses also caught on film. (I think she must have been practicing her kung-fu moves in the bottom left picture)..........

And she was dressed up in an outfit that was way too big on her, but apparently pretty cute anyway. Aaron saw her that day when he went there at lunch and told me that her outfit said "Mommy's Girl" on it....and take a wild guess at who didn't even get to see it? Yep, MOMMY! They had her naked again by the time I got there in the evening. :( Now that's just bullcrap. The nurses did take pictures, even though you can't tell it said anything on the clothes....

noreply@blogger.com (Deidre) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 14:31:00 +0000

Yesterday was one of the best visits we've had, I think.
Roxie was taken off the CPAP machine again. (the big blue & white tubes that went through her nose to help her breathe.) And she seems to be doing very well. Her breathing sounds so much better than last time she was taken off of it. It's much more normal without sounding like she's straining to breathe.

Also, as you can see from the picture, she doesn't even have the small oxygen tube she had last time helping her breathe. She is doing it completely on her own. The only thing she still has is the gavage feeding tube in her mouth - which is why she has the tape on her chin. I believe she'll have that in place until she develops the sucking reflex and is able to take a bottle. (2-3 weeks maybe? I'm not sure.)

Other than that, her weight has dropped just a little. She's been holding pretty steady at, or very close to, 3 pounds 4 ounces for a little while now. Apparently, it's not anything to be concerned about though. She used to have an IV in her arm that was giving her fats and calories and some other stuff, and since it has been taken out, the crazy weight gains she was having have tapered off. Makes sense I guess - but of course, we're hoping she starts picking up weight again real soon.

Oh, by the way, a note about the pictures on this page.....
Most of them can be seen bigger if you click on them. I'm not sure why, but not ALL of them will let you. But since they're all sort of small, I thought I'd mention this in case it hasn't already been figured out!

A Few Things Worth Mentioning...

noreply@blogger.com (Deidre) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:58:00 +0000

Not a whole lot to report since we didn’t get to go see Roxie last night. (Thank you very much for all the snow, Mother Nature.)
But a few things worth mentioning...

She DID hit the 3 pound mark…and surpassed it. As of Tuesday (or was it Wednesday?), she was at 3 pounds 4 ounces. By now, I’m sure she is a good few ounces more. So she is officially one pound over her birth weight. You can definitely tell she is filling out. Her cheeks, along with the rest of her body, are looking much more round.

One thing I just keep forgetting to mention --- We’ve been asked quite a few times when we anticipate being able to bring her home. Apparently, they used to let preemies go home when they hit a certain weight (5 pounds, I think). But I guess they don’t do it that way anymore. The doctor told us it would probably be 8-10 weeks. Eight weeks would be Friday, March 28th. Of course, she may not come home that early, and there is a slight possibility that she could come home a tad before then as well. It all depends on how well she can regulate her own body temperature and as long as she is feeding well.

Hopefully we’ll have some more good news to report to everyone in the next couple/few days!

(picture to the left taken 2-15, before they put the big CPAP tubes back on.)

Good While it Lasted

noreply@blogger.com (Deidre) — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:02:00 +0000

Well, she DID go off the CPAP machine....but it ended up being only for the weekend.

We went in Friday night not knowing for sure what we'd find when we lifted the cover off her isolette. It almost felt like we were two kids at Christmas - all excited to see if she still had those tubes in her face or not. Obviously, we were more than happy to see this.......

She still had one small tube in her nose, but we could actually see what our own baby looked like for the first time....and she is so much more adorable than we even thought! :) (I'm sounding more and more like a parent every day, huh?)

We've also been getting to hold her more often. Now we are able to hold her while she's just wrapped up in a blanket. It is SO much better than kangaroo care because we can actually look at her while holding her. Here's a picture of her when I was holding her - and with her eyes open for once......

So anyway, like I said - she only got a short vacation from the CPAP machine. We were warned that she might have to go back on it soon because she was breathing harder without it and tiring herself out a bit. So, Sunday night, the doctor decided it would be best to put the CPAP tubes back in for awhile longer. I'm not sure when they'll try to wean her off it it again, but I would imagine it won't be too long.

Kangaroo Care Rocks!

noreply@blogger.com (Deidre) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 04:56:00 +0000

I got to hold Roxie again last night (2/13). (picture to the right) Yeah, maybe I look a bit cheesy, but considering it was only the 2nd time I've held her, why wouldn't I?! :) Aaron got to hold her tonight. Talk about a great Valentine's gift for Daddy!

It seems like she is just about always sleeping when we're there - or at least just laying there with her eyes closed - but right before we left tonight, she finally opened up her eyes and just laid there looking around for awhile. And let me just say, she's even more adorable when she's awake.

As for her weight -- she is gaining really well and closing in on THREE pounds! As of tonight, her weight was 2 pounds, 15 ounces. Her belly is so big and round. :) They've increased the amount of breast milk she is being given, so I would suppose that would be the reason.

Tomorrow the plan is to try taking her off of the CPAP machine again. If she handles it well, that would mean that she is breathing completely on her own with no help from any machines. The nurse tonight said that they may end up putting her on just a small tube of oxygen (I don't know what she called it though). But it would be way smaller than those big CPAP tubes and she wouldn't have to wear the hat either. Evidently, that's often how they transition them to breathing all on their own. So...we'll see what happens.

Recap of Roxie's First Week....

noreply@blogger.com (Deidre) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 20:00:00 +0000

I was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday (2/5). Knowing I would be going home, the NICU nurses decided it would be a good time to let me hold Roxie for the first time. (and as of yet, the only time I’ve been able to hold her.) The term they use is “kangaroo care”, which is skin to skin care. They pulled up a recliner, had me unzip my shirt and laid her right on my chest so that she could hear my heart beating. Because she still had all her cords and tubes attached, I couldn’t really snuggle her or anything except just sit there, but believe me, that was PLENTY. They let us just sit together for about 45 minutes or so. Since then, Aaron has gotten a chance to hold her as well, which was nice for him since it made him extremely jealous when I got to hold her! One of the nurses said they don’t want to do that all the time since she is so small, but as she gets bigger, we should be able to do it more often. They probably did more damage than good in letting us do that though, because now all we think about is when we can hold her again!

For now, they still have her on a CPAP machine. (that is the tube across her nose. It applies pressure inside her lungs, but she is actually breathing on her own.) They tried to take her off of that on Friday (2/8), but said she started to breath sort of fast, so they put her back on. Not a huge deal though. She is still pretty small, so it’s not uncommon what happened. We can’t wait until she is off of that thing though because then we could actually see her face AND she wouldn’t have to wear her little Smurf hat anymore either.

Also on Friday, they did a brain/head ultrasound to see if everything looked normal in there and to see if she had any bleeding. Thank God she passed that with flying colors!

She is now being fed small amounts of breast milk and as far as I know, she is handling that pretty well. She is also slowly gaining a little bit of weight. In fact, as of last night, her weight was at 2 lbs. 10 oz. (She was born at 2 lbs. 6 oz. and lost 3 oz. right at first.)

So…so far, things have gone very well. We haven’t really received any bad news. Roxie seems to be doing just fine. Everyone in the NICU always lets on like they are impressed by her and how feisty she is. Almost all the nurses we’ve had comment that she is “just such a doll.” And the nurses are fabulous! They've even made a few little scrapbook-type pages with pictures that hang in her little section. Here's a close up of one of the pictures one nurse took for us.....

She still has her little mustache on that protects her skin from the tube thing, but at least you can see her face.

As for Aaron and I, we’ve been visiting her everyday. It’s hard to visit and not want to smuggle her out the door - especially when she opens up those little eyes and squeezes her hand closed around our fingers.

It breaks our hearts not to be able to bring her home with us, but we know she’s where she needs to be for now. Aaron says she has to grow butt cheeks before she can come home anyway. (when we changed her diaper, we noticed that her "butt" doesn't even have actual cheeks yet. It's pretty much just flat without much of a crack!!)