One Month Old!

 Lauren is one month old today!  It doesn't seem possible, but one month has already gone by.  The pictures don't prove it, but she is actually starting to stay awake more and keep her eyes open for us over the past few days.  She goes for her one month appointment next week, but Lauren is doing great.  She is growing, and was at 7lbs 3oz last Tuesday when I took her to be weighed.  That is a gain of almost two pounds since she left the NICU.  

 She loves to cuddle in your arms.

Pumpkin Patch

 The girls enjoyed the pumpkin patch this year!

 MeMe and PaPa came in town to visit, so the girls were excited they got to come to the patch too!

 Having fun in the hay maze

 It's so heavy!

 Pretty girls got their face painted; probably the thing they liked the best!

 Our little pumpkin this year!

 It was MeMe's birthday on Sunday, so it was great to celebrate it with her in town!

First Couple of Weeks at Home

 This was Lauren's first sponge bath.  Overall, she did a great job and liked it as long as she was wrapped up.  This first picture obviously shows her a little not so happy with it, but she was cold!  Since then, her umbilical cord fell off, so she's had a "real" bath too.  She really enjoyed that as long as she stayed warm!

 We've decided Lauren is a little of Sarah and a little of Emily.  Here, she looks like Emily. 

 Rusty loves to cuddle with Lauren and take naps with her.

 The girls love playing Legos with Daddy!

 Emily was SO EXCITED when she got her Elsa dress!!

 Yes, we already have the girls "pumping" too...

 Sweet girl getting so big!

I forgot to post this.  The weekend before I had Lauren, they had Rodeo day at church.  Sarah and her friend Sara got to throw a pie in Pastor Greg's face because they were the most dressed up.  Both girls were not so sure about doing it, but together, they made it happen!

October 5th--Coming Home!

 After ten days, we got to take Lauren home!  Look, no more feeding tube!

 This was Lauren's "pod" for a week and a half. 

 So happy to be bringing her home!

 Getting her in the car

 The girls were very excited when we returned home with Lauren!

 Joy!

 First time holding little sister

Precious!

Making Progress in the NICU

 Each time we came to see Lauren, we were eager to see if she was in a crib or still in the incubator.  The day we came and saw no more incubator was a cool day!  That meant she definitely didn't need oxygen anymore, and it also meant she was regulating her own body temperature.  Now, she just had to get the strength to eat all of her feedings for two days in a row!

 I also had a lot of guilt;  were we coming up to see her enough?  Was I spending time with Sarah and Emily enough?  Would they understand why Mom and Dad were a little distant and distracted?  Rusty had to reassure me that guilt was from the enemy, and that we were doing fine with juggling it all.

 We really enjoyed the times we were able to hold Lauren when we went to see her.  

 Margaret was a God send.  I don't know how we could have done it without her all week.  She helped with the girls, helped around the house, and we are so thankful for her!!!  She treats the girls like they are her grandkids and us like we are her own kids; such a wonderful person!

 PaPa got to see Lauren one last time before heading back to Houston.

 Getting to wear clothes!

By the following Thursday or Friday, we really were seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  She started eating consecutively, and the nurses assured us she was going to keep that up and it would be in no time that she would get to go home; they were right!  They ordered for her car seat test, hearing test, Hep B shot, and we were told Sunday would be the day!

First Days in the NICU

 I had no idea what to expect when they wheeled me into her NICU room Thursday evening, and I know that nothing could have prepared me for what I did see.  I'm sure the hormones from just giving birth didn't help, but it was incredibly rough to see Lauren that evening.  I consider myself a pretty strong woman when it comes to holding it together, but when I saw her, I pretty much lost it.  It looked a lot worse than it actually was, and once the doctor explained it all to me, I definitely was more stable. 

 The doctors explained to us that Lauren had to succeed at different "steps" in order to be released from the NICU.  Rusty and I wrongly assumed she'd be in there a few hours or overnight, but that wasn't the case.  She had to be able to successfully breath on her own, maintain her body temperature on her own, and eat all on her own for 48 hours before they considered releasing her.  They wouldn't give us a "time" for how long that would take, which we understood why, so we really had to just let her call the shots.  That is something very hard for me to do, and I truly believe that was one thing God taught me in this entire journey; I'm not in control. 

 She had to stay in the incubator until she was strong enough to not need the CPAP for breathing.  A day after she completed that step, she got jaundice, so they had to put her right back in there for a couple of days.

 So precious!

 They had very strict rules in the NICU, which we were very thankful for.  Only Rusty and I could come to see her whenever we wanted to, but there were only eight scheduled times throughout the day we could touch her.  Early on, that's all we could do.  We only could touch her through the round "windows" of the incubator that opened.  After 48 hours, we were able to take her out to hold her and feed her.  Also, only four other people could come in to see her total; they called it the family tree.  

 All of her grandparents were able to see her Saturday night before leaving to go back to Houston.

This doll was something Emily picked out for baby Lauren at the hospital right before she was born.  She wanted us to leave it in Lauren's room with her while she was in the NICU.  The girls actually were able to see Lauren for about five minutes before she left for the NICU, and then they didn't see her again (minus in pictures) until she was released and came home.