Our Sleeping Beauty

Our little Jayden is getting so big! She is no longer fitting in preemie clothes! She is wearing newborn clothes, even though they are still big on her :-) I tried weighing her this morning, and it was a little inaccurate. The first time it said 6.3 lbs (I know she's not that much lol), the second time it said 5.8 lbs and the third time it said 5.6 lbs. I guess I'll have to wait until her doctor appointment Friday for an official weigh in :)

She is getting much better at sleeping through the night. She wakes up every 3 1/2 - 4 hours and I've been really good about putting her back in her cradle or bouncer seat to sleep after she eats...until her 5:30/6:00 am feeding...then we have mommy/Jayden snuggle time :-) She's still sleeping most of the day, but she usually stays up for 30-45 minutes after she eats...and when she is awake she wants to be looking around! She wants to be watching anything and everything around her! It's adorable! I can already tell our little Jayden is going to be an explorer! And when she is sleeping, we have noticed she LOVES sleeping with her little hands by her face or her arms up over her head (she gets that from daddy!). She's our little sleeping beauty!

Raise your hand if you love daddy :)

She can literally sleep anywhere, anytime and through anything...and I mean anything

LOVE THIS ONE <3

This is how she fell asleep on our walk with Aunt B the other day! :)

One of my favorites!

She slept through the workers downstairs demoing our tile and installing new floors! I wasn't kidding when I said she can sleep through anything! 

Our little explorer LOL

L.O.V.E.

It's official ~ yesterday was my original due date (and just happened to be Jayden's 2 month birthday). She has been home for 3 weeks and what an amazing 3 weeks it has been! Yesterday we went to get her footprints and handprints done (special thanks to the Knights Family for the gift certificate!). She was fast asleep until her little hand and foot touched the cold clay! She was not a happy camper and was crying the whole time! As soon as we were done she stopped crying and passed out!

Little Jayden is also growing out of her preemie clothes! We put a newborn outfit on her for the first time the other day...it was too cute!! She was swimming in the onesie! Our next pediatric appointment is next Friday...I can't wait to find out exactly how much she weighs! I thought she was around 5 1/2 pounds so I bought a digital scale to try and weigh her...both Jonathan and I weighed ourselves and then weighed ourselves while holding her...both times the difference was 5.4 pounds...so I was almost spot on :) I can't believe she has almost doubled her birth weight! But at the same time it's weird to think she is still half of her cousins weight! LOL Baby Brooklyn (Lexi's baby that was born the same day as Jayden) had her 2 month check up and was just over 10 lbs :) I can't wait meet baby Brooklyn and I can't wait to see her next to Jayden! It is going to be adorable!!

Our Sleeping Beauty <3

It's obvious we were torturing her LOL

Daddy Daughter snuggle time <3

Ten Commandments to Parents

This afternoon I was browsing Pinterest while Jayden was napping and I found something so special, I just had to share!! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Child's Ten Commandments to Parents

1. My hands are small; please don’t expect perfection whenever I make a bed, draw a picture, or throw a ball. My legs are short; please slow down so that I can keep up with you. 

2. My eyes have not seen the world as yours have; please let me explore safely: don’t restrict me unnecessarily.

3. Housework will always be there. I’m only little such a short time—please take time to explain things to me about this wonderful world, and do so willingly.

4. My feelings are tender; please be sensitive to my needs; don’t nag me all day long. (You wouldn’t want to be nagged for your inquisitiveness.) Treat me as you would like to be treated.

5. I am a special gift from God; please treasure me as God intended you to do, holding me accountable for my actions, giving me guidelines to live by, and disciplining me in a loving manner.

6. I need your encouragement, but not your praise, to grow. Please go easy on the criticism; remember you can criticize the things I do without criticizing me.

7. Please give me the freedom to make decisions concerning myself. Permit me to fail, so that I can learn from my mistakes. Then someday I’ll be prepared to make the kind of decisions life requires of me.

8. Please don’t do things over for me. Somehow that makes me feel that my efforts didn’t quite measure up to your expectations. I know it’s hard, but please don’t try to compare me to my brother or my sister.

9. Please don’t be afraid to leave for a weekend together.  Kids need vacations from parents, just as parents need vacations from kids. Besides, it’s a great way to show us kids that your marriage is very special.

10. Please take me to Sunday school and church regularly, setting a good example for me to follow. I enjoy learning more about God.

*A Child’s Ten Commandments to Parents, by Dr. Kevin Leman

Fearfully & Wonderfully Made

It seems like forever since I've picked up my iPad to write a blog. Is it me...or does it seem like the second you have a baby (at home) time passes so quickly and the days and weeks seem to fly by!?! Don't get me wrong, her time passed by relatively quickly in the NICU, but now it seems like that was decades ago. Crazy it was just a week and a half ago I was basically living at the hospital and now we have settled into our daily routine at home and we are absolutely loving it. Or as Jonathan would say, he's "loving this dad thing". He is so sweet with her it blows my mind. I always knew he would be an amazing dad, I just didn't know how great it would be and how much I would love watching him just watching her!

Since we have been home, my days are longer and my nights are definitely shorter...but there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to love on our little Jayden! Her first appointment with her pediatrician was last Friday (ya I know it's taken me forever to write about it)...but it went great! She gained weight, she weighed in at 4 lbs 7 ounces! And the doctor said she is looking amazing! I think Jayden is close to 5 lbs now...she is definitely feeling heavier when we pick her up. Jonathan and I went to Costco yesterday and bought a 6 lbs package of ground beef...when we got to the car I told Jonathan it's weird to think that package weighs more than Jayden (even more weird to think it is double what her birth weight was!!)

I'm so excited today we hung the first decorations in the nursery! And I must say, her room is definitely coming together! :) We have some of her furniture ready for her also! So far we have her crib, changing table, rocking chair and bookshelf! Everything looks adorable and it looks better than I thought it would! I can't wait until her room is ready, even though she won't be sleeping in there for a while, it will be nice to have it complete. This week we are also getting her dresser and a glider chair for our room delivered by Wednesday! It will be nice to have all of her clothes in the dresser instead of in the hallway. Her stuff has quickly taken over our house. I told Jonathan he needs to get used to it ;-)

Tomorrow morning we have her newborn photoshoot! I'm so excited to see how the pictures turn out and I can't wait to share them :-)

First nursery decorations :-)

Jayden's bookshelf full of books from friends and family!!

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, your works are wonderful, I know that full well." ~ Psalm 139:14

Home Sweet Home

Tuesday, March 26th was the day we patiently waited for! Jayden was finally discharged and is officially home with me and Jonathan!!! It took me a few days to finally pick up the computer and blog about her homecoming. Now that she's home I get so easily distracted :-) when she's sleeping I can sit there and watch her for hours. I love snuggling with her morning, noon and night!! It's the best thing in the world having her home and even better, I LOVE seeing Jonathan spend time with little Jayden. He is so sweet with her and it makes me fall in love with him all over again!

After 38 days in the NICU, Jayden went from 2 lbs 15 ounces to 4 lbs 6 ounces. Even though she's still tiny, she is perfect in every way and we are so excited as this next chapter in our life has been unbelievable!

Packing up our little baby <3

We are officially out of the NICU and headed home!!

She's so tiny in her big car seat!

First night home <3

48 Hour Challenge

If I thought the hospital was my home away from home before...I was definitely mistaken as now I am officially staying at the hospital 24/7 until our little miracle comes home with us.

A few days ago I made a comment to our nurse that Jayden always feeds well from her bottle when Jonathan feeds her or I feed her and I didn't understand why she wasn't eating well with any of the nurses or the developmental specialists. So I decided to come in bright and early yesterday to feed her all day. Around 1:00 I was informed they were going to close our room as the NICU was half empty, and they would be putting us in a new room. Our associate nurse requested we get a private room and suggested we stay overnight for the next few days and do the 48 hour challenge. Every baby has to eat all their meals through their bottle for a full 48 hours before they are discharged. At that time, the most Jayden was able to eat was 3 consecutive bottles. The staff really wanted to see how well she would do overnight with me or Jonathan feeding her, and of course we agreed and I ran home to pack my bags for the next few days.

Jayden completely surprised everyone by eating 8 consecutive bottles!! This is such great progress for her! We couldn't be happier! Her 9th bottle, which was at 8:30 this morning, she was able to eat half...which is still great! Since she couldn't finish the bottle, the 48 hours starts over...but we are so proud of her!

Today she was finally able to move from her isoltette to a crib! She looks tiny in the crib...and the crib is preemie size...so I can't wait to see how she looks in her crib at home!! Also, as of last night she is up to 4 lbs. 2.5 oz.! I still can't believe how much she is changing each and every day! She's such a miracle and literally growing before our eyes!

Tonight I will be sleeping next to her again. I told her last night we finally get to have sleepovers and mommy gets to stay next to her all night! I think she smiled when I told her that! :-) It really was the best sleepover in the world and I'm so excited I get to stay with her until she comes home!!

First Time for Everything

There is a saying there is a first time for everything, well yesterday we experienced our first set-back...something we definitely could have lived without. Jayden has been doing amazing, eating half her feeds by bottle, gaining weight (as of yesterday she was a full 3 lbs. 14 oz.!), maintaining her temperature...but yesterday she just didn't want to eat, she only wanted to sleep (weird I am kind of feeling the same these days). And of course it happened to be the day I didn't get to the hospital until almost 3 because our home security company came out at 9 am today to fix our system and didn't finish until 2:30! So frustrating! So the nurse gave me her updates when I walked in the NICU and she told me the doctor ordered her feeds to be reduced to one bottle per shift (only two bottles per day!)....I couldn't believe it...the nurse yesterday said she was going to recommend increasing her feeds to three per shift! How could we be going backwards? I was so confused. At this point I have no idea when she could be coming home and it's more frustrating than ever.

Today was a little better...I got to the hospital first thing in the morning and she was wide awake looking for me! And today she is officially over 4 pounds!! A full 4 pounds 1 ounce!! I'm so proud of her! And of course when I fed her today she ate like a champ! She sucked down her bottle in about 20 minutes and looked like she was still hungry! I can't wait to see how she does tonight and tomorrow! Today she also had her eye exam (poor baby!)...I didn't watch as I was informed by my step sis (who is a NICU nurse in AZ) that it's not something I want to see. The doctor puts a clamp on her eye, which I guess looks like an eyelash curler, and examines her eyes to make sure they are developing properly. Of course she let out a cry during the exam, but as soon as the doctor was done she stopped crying. Luckily her eyes are looking great and the doctor said her development looks awesome for her gestational age! That made me feel a million times better since we didn't have such a great day yesterday.

At this point we are just taking it one day at a time and going at her pace.