9 months old....

8 1/2 - 9 month pics!

Our little girl is going to be 9 months old this week! WOW, where has time gone?! Last year at this time mommy had started her bed rest journey, we had hoped it would get us to 40 weeks gestation but our little girl has proved that 24 weeks was when she was coming and she has been fighting on ever since!

She's even getting enough hair now to put a 'pretty' in it!

Danielle is LOVING her freedom now and doing great without her oxygen. She has had many firsts these past few weeks. She has had her first bites of cereal and seems to be really liking it a lot. We are still trying to get it figured out but a little is better than none and she tolerates it just fine, we are sure she will like it more once we add the yummy stuff to it for some flavor! She is also getting her first tooth!!!!! This is VERY exciting news. Its right in the middle on the bottom and it is just starting to poke thru. She is starting to love to chew on things, including her fist. She is still rolling and rolling and beginning to love floor time more. She gets her legs under her when she is on her belly and scoots herself forward, and when on her back she does the same thing by burying her heels in the crib or floor and scooting upwards. She likes to watch certain toys and is beginning to like her swing more. She coo's at the darndest things! She loves her toys during floor time and she loves to be able to stretch out on the floor, but there still isn't anything like being snuggled by mommy and daddy, we get lots of snuggle time at our house!!!!

Danielle is weighing in at 15 pounds too, big girl! She is growing and growing and is getting very long too. She is sleeping thru the night and has been for quite some time now. She goes to bed about 8:30-9 and we wake her at 5am for a bottle during the week and she goes back to sleep until 7. The weekends she will sleep right thru until 7, it is great for everyone in the house to have a restful nights sleep! Dylan loves to go in with mommy and wake her up at 7. He stands at her door and knocks on it, and if I open it before he gets to knock, he gets MAD at me. So we knock then I pick her up out of her crib and he has to squeeze her toes and say' hey baby' before we start her day. Its pretty cute!

Today we took Danielle to IC for her ABR hearing test. Danielle had previously had 3 hearing tests and never did completely pass them before. She would pass parts but not the whole thing. So to make sure everything is a-ok, the Odo doctor wanted her to have this ABR test done. The unfortunate part was that she did have to be sedated for the test. They attached many electrodes to her head, laid her in a crib in a sound proof room and put little attachments in her ears that dispersed different sounds. Then the Audiologist in the other room monitored her brain waves during each noise. Mommy was very scared to have her sedated, especially because she just came off oxygen only 2 1/2 weeks ago. So daddy stayed in the room with her the whole time along with the nurse monitoring her sats. She did great, she PASSED all the way around! She even woke up just as the test was finishing like she just had a little cat nap. She was very hungry considering she had not been able to eat for the previous 8 hours. So tonight she was eating and eating up a storm. We never questioned her hearing ability at all so we were not at all concerned about that. But it is a little unnerving watching a baby go thru this and even though we felt she was fine we wanted that from them also. After all, the Otolaryngology Dept at the University is rated #2 in the US, this is why we go there. They are the best and take such great care of both our kids. She passed, all is great and we are holding off on tubes until her follow-up in August to see how she is doing at that time. If she has a few ear infections before August then we will do them sooner. Our doctor is very conservative and we love him for that. He also did Dylan's tubes and we felt just as comfortable with him then as we do now!

Things are great, our baby girl is such a sweet little thing. Here are some of her 8 1/2- 9 month pics. She is such a good baby and loves to snuggle with us. We look back at how these past 9 months began, it was a little scary, but we were then and remain optimistic. We believe in our daughter and we fight for her and pray for her every single day. We have been blessed with her as our daughter and not a moment goes by that we don't realize how fortunate we are to have her with us today. We love you baby girl, keep fighting, stay strong and we will all keep believing, you are our little star!~

BIG day.......

Today was a great day. Both kids had appointments in Iowa City and at the same time....together.....it was crazy! Starting with Danielle we were asked to take her off oxygen 4 hours before the appointment then they would test her saturation's at the beginning of the appointment to see where she was. Well mommy and daddy decided to take her off oxygen 5 hours before the appointment because we were pretty sure that she was ready to come off. So mommy took the canula off this morning and Danielle was extra happy. No tubing around her head, taped to her face, she was a new woman. When we got to IC there was a room full of people waiting for the kids. The PT and her student, the ARNP and her student, the doctor, the Care Coordinator, mommy, 2 kids and thankfully Grammie is here visiting and was able to go with and HELP! So the PT is wonderful and wanted to do her evaluation first, so they plugged her into the oximeter, I tried not to glance over but couldn't help it and was SO excited with what I saw, 98% after 5 1/2 hours! So the just of the day is that Danielle got to COME OFF OXYGEN!!!!! We are SO SO SO excited and happy for her. She is such a big girl and growing strong every day.

The PT worked with her for about 1/2 hour while they did the 'study eval' on Dylan. She was happy the whole time, loved being worked over, her sats never dropped, she never made a peep, just looked around and smiled. It was great. She is weighing in at just over 14 1/2 pounds now and is over 2 ft tall! She is following the growth curve very well, they are happy for her. They also told us that we could stop the Apnea Monitor but mommy isn't quite ready to give that up yet. Mostly because Danielle is now officially in her big girl room and sleeping in her crib. So it is so nice to be able to have that monitor as a little extra security, knowing it should alarm with any breathing issue or low/high heart rate issue. So they said mommy could wean that on her own time, when we are comfortable. But we will try and do it within 2 weeks.

So now that Danielle is sleeping in her room and her crib she is sleeping even better. She slept all night before but now we usually have to wake her up during the week for early morning feedings before daycare. It is great. She sleeps from about 8:30-9pm until 5am and the weekends until usually 6:30 or 7, she is thankfully adapting very well. She is liking all of that extra space and her room is nice and dark, just how she likes it and toasty warm. It is great.

She is continuing to love to be held. I mean ALL of the time. We are cherishing these moments though. She loves play time on her quilt but after about 10 minutes or so she will squeal because she wants someone to play with her, so that is what we do. She loves Bumbo time, the PT told us to get her a tray for it and put toys on the tray to encourage her to pick them up, so we will do. She loves her rattle and her rings and her musical toys too. She still loves music time in her crib and she really loves bath time with music as well. It is relaxing for her. She is a very happy girl and we couldn't be luckier to have 2 happy kids who love snuggle time! So we can't wait to watch Danielle thrive even more now that she does not having that tubing around all of the time. She had a very busy day today and is sleeping soundly tonight. Here are some before and after pics of our little princess, we are so fortunate God blessed us with her. We love you Danielle Marie!~