*January 19th*

22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” Lamentations 2:22-24

Lucy is now 37 days old, and her gestational age is 35 weeks and 1 day! This is the week Luke and I had planned on her making her appearance due to the umbilical cord vessel issue.But, as we all know, there were other plans. We are still thankful for how healthy she has stayed throughout the first month. We are trying to at least stay in control of that so there are no other issues we have to deal with right now. We are so very happy that the NICU is so strict on cleanliness, and also glad that she has had breastmilk to keep her from getting the stomach bug that mommy had. How crazy is it that a mom's body makes antibodies for the sickness that she has so that baby will stay healthy.I'm not sure I would have thought of that when creating people! 

There are 2 things in the NICU that make me tear up still. 1) When Lucy's neighbors go home & 2) When new mommies come in in their wheelchair the first few times, and leave bawling and wiping their faces with kleenexes.

When we were in the intensive section, there was a little boy that shared a nurse with Lucy, he was about 3 weeks old & sick. He couldn't handle any milk, and was on electrolytes. He finally got to where he was great with just breastmilk, and then he was gone. That is when Lucy moved over to another area from bed #51 to bed #49. Then when she was there the 1 pound 8 ounce boy was born--he is still in the intensive section, while Lucy shortly moved to the Step-down unit. When we moved to the Step-down unit, the little boy that was behind us had been in the NICU for 3 months! He was born right around 25 weeks. The day I had Lucy, his parents assured Luke that we would be FINE at 30 weeks, and that their son had come so far since then. He was born on October 3rd and went home right before the 2nd week in January. Then we had another little girl move into his spot. She was born right at 35 weeks, but her mom had been in the hospital for 8 weeks altogether by the time she was discharged. She was right over 4 pounds when she was born ( the mom's 6th child, but 8th between the mom and dad!) The mom also had to have a hysterectomy and bladder surgery and was pretty out of it the first couple times we saw her. The baby just needed to gain her weight back before she could go home. They left on Monday.All the other babies in the step-down section are separated by walls. There is 1 little boy who was a twin. The twin went home about a week and  a half ago, but he is still there. We see them some, but they are around a corner. There are so many babies in the intensive section right now, it's always so loud and busy when I walk back to pump. Hopefully they will all get healthy, and be able to move up to the next level!
The other day an older couple ( older for having a baby, I'd say at least 40's) rolled into the NICU. Luke and I both kinda noticed when they rolled in--she had on a silk robe, fancy slippers, long blond hair semi-curled, and he was dressed nicely. It reminded me of how gross I looked when I went in the first time--I hadn't showered in about 6 days, my hair had been pulled up the same way for 5 days, my body was still swollen because I hadn't started the diuertic yet, Idon't even know if I had slippers on, and had on 1 robe front ways and 1 robe backwards. I had my glasses on, I still felt out of it, and was trying to prepare myself to see a baby that was 2 pounds and 3 ounces.
I'm not even quite sure I had wanted to go down yet, but made myself.....and was made by Luke. I remembered how I felt that day as the lady and man rolled out. As she went in, she was trying to hold everything in and keep her composure, but as she left, she had a wad of kleenexes and tears streaming down her face. This is what i remember looking like as soon as I rolled to Lucy's bed--and for the first month after she was born and I didn't have a day without a lot of tears.. We've seen them come in and leave the same exact way about 3 times.I wish I could go hug her and cry with her, and tell her that everything will be fine. But, the sad thing is that it might not be alright with their baby. Families like this also remind us of how blessed we are with Lucy's health.
The first 'negative' report we have gotten was yesterday, and even so the Dr. talked to us with a smile on his face. He assured us that everything is as good as it can be, and no big deal at all. They did hear a heart murmur this week, and she has 2 holes in her heart. I forget the names of them both. 1 is something that preemie babies get, and should close on its own. The other is 'ok' also. Neither of them require anything to be done to them, besides going to a cardiologist in about a month and  a half to follow up.
Lucy's day nurse yesterday said that she drank 34/34 ml of her bottle-all of it- in about 20 minutes. That means that she is getting the hang of it. The night nurse was skipping the next feeding by bottle, and trying the next one to see how she did. Drinking a bottle still takes a lot of energy for her since she isn't 4 pounds yet.  She will soon be at the 4 pound mark! Then, as of now, all we have left is to get her fully feeding not on the tube. With her bottles, she has to drink the minimum amount they set in under 30 minutes.
Thanks again for the prayers and especially FOOD! It's so great to not have to worry about that right now still as we are going back and forth between the hospital and carrying on our lives at Home Depot and at home with Landon.
We did also meet a man yesterday while we were waiting to scrub in. He buzzed in and said he was there to see the ____ babies, and I saw he had 2 bracelets on. I asked him if he had twins, and he said yes that one was born Sunday at ____Am, and the other one was just born that morning. How cool! I mean, I know it was a bad situation that led them to being born that way, and having to be in the NICU is not cool at all. I wish we hadn't been let in right then to scrub in because I wanted to talk to him more! He said they were very early, but I'm guessing they were bigger for their size because he was a TALL man. Maybe we will see him tonight, and I can ask more!
We will keep updating, keep us in your prayers still. It seems we are getting closer to coming home, but keeping Lucy at home until April will wear us down also. At least we won't have to figure our times to go back and forth, and she will be here with us! Just don't make fun of me, I'm already getting a sign ready to put on the door for when visitors come over. There will be some strict rules around here if you come visit, anything to keep us away from the E.R.