68 Days Old

Olivia is doing wonderful. She is such an amazing baby. It amazes me every day to see what she accomplishes. She is now able to breastfeed 2 times a shift, so 4 times a day. I try not to push her. If she is showing signs of wanting to I totally let her, but if she is sleepy and not interested I don't mess with it. The reasoning behind that is because many times these itty bitty babies will take longer to learn if they are pushed. I have had a lot of my NICU mom friends that have given me the advice to take your time in learning to eat and things and they are right, she does a lot better when I do it on her time instead of my time.
Olivia loves her crib, she wiggles around and keeps her temperature up, so well that we don't even have to wrap her up too tight with lots of blankets. If she has clothes on and a blanket she stays plenty warm. She's doing well with breathing, she still needs her caffeine, but her flow is down to a rate of 2! After her eye exam today (Friday) they are going to put her on low flow and she'll give that a try, if her eyes are fully developed. Low flow is a lot let puffs of air to remind her to breath, but it still has oxygen for her.

October 31st, Olivia's first Halloween and her first time outside! In the picture from right to left is Nurse M, Boss J, Olivia and I, and RT MJ. Picture taken by Dr. Ridout.

Here we are in the St. George Sunshine!

Sorry the picture is dark, I took it with my phone and I don't have the flash on because miss Olivia doesn't like that much and most of the time her room is not very bright.

Here she is in clothes that fit. This outfit is from Debbie, thank you!

Big huge yawn. She loves to sleep, like mother like daughter! :)

My beautiful baby sleeping on me!

I hope you can see this, her hat is the one I took a while back that was WAY too big for her. Now it fits and its darling. Thank you NNP Beckie for making her the cutest hats.

This is what happens when the sun is shining on her and she's trying to sleep (we keep her window open in the day). She pulls things over her face so she can sleep. What a girl.

Life in the NICU isn't the easiest place to live. It's been a long long two months, but at the same time I feel like time is flying by. I have got to the point that I am sorta going a little crazy or driving everyone else crazy here because I am in the need of social interaction. Now that Olivia is in an open crib and flu and RSV season are upon us she can't have visitors and that means some lonely times. I am so excited about nursing her 4 times a day! But it means I have to be at the hospital a lot and if any of you know me well, I dislike the hospital with a passion close to the disliking of the dentist (not quite though). The staff here at the NICU are fantastic, I couldn't ask for better people taking care of Olivia and lets be honest me :) But, I am feeling that my journey here is coming to a close so it makes me a little antsy to be home in my beautiful Cedar City ( I know it's cold, but I love it anyway.)
Have a great weekend friends and family and followers I don't even know. We love you!