Little Lily is almost 6 months old and she is doing great!!! She's healthy and happy and such a sweet baby. Jason blessed her on July 1st. This is her blessing dress. She looked so cute in it!! We are so grateful for her and we are enjoying her soooo much!!! Em is such an awesome, patient, loving big sister and she always talks and sings to "Lil" as she calls her!! I'm so grateful for my family!

 We has our annual family Easter picnic today. It was so good to see everyone and catch up. This was Lily's first time meeting most of the extended family and she got held the whole time! Our family is very happy when there is a baby around!! And Lily is the first baby in a year and a half!
-Top=grandpa DeHart and all of his 5 kisd with their spouses
-Middle=7 out of 15 of us cousins, from left to right= Chandie, Celeste, Emma, Molly, Buck, Christy, and Becky
-Bottom= a 4 generation picture with my grandpa, mom, me and Lily
My grandpa is 89 and it's so sweet of him to always help with the family meal. He loves seeing all the little kids and giving them all a dollar! I love how our family always has our set parties every year. We might not see each other that often but we are a close family and we are always there for each other!

 Em had her 6th birthday! We celebrated by having a little party with her friends. We had a pinata, pizza, and games. She had a great time and I can't believe she's already 6!!! She's such a sweet girl! She's so animated, fun, smart, an awesome big sister and a little spitfire all in one cute little package!!

Emily and Lily!!! We got Em a dress that came with a matching doll dress and Lily fit in it. It was a little short but it fit!! Me and Em set up a little photo shoot in the living room and had fun collecting all the stuffed bunnies we could find around the house. It really makes Lily look small when she's next to Em. Em isn't exactly big for her age!!! It's so fun to see how much Em loves her little sister and I love watching her interact with Lily!

Welcome home baby Lily!!!

Lily has been doing so well! She was able to get off the oxygen and she had her feeding tube removed not too long ago. Her doctor told me today when I went to visit her that she really didn't see any reason to keep her any longer. She is over 5 lbs now and she has been staying warm and working really hard to have every meal with a bottle. She passed her car seat test and we were able to bring her home today! We survived 5 weeks and 4 days in the NICU!!!! It's been a long and tiring road but she has recieved good care and we are grateful for it. Em is soooo excited to have her sister home and finally be able to hold her and see her without glass separating them! We are so excited to finally be together as a family! We are so grateful for all the thoughts and prayers that have been sent our way. Everyone has been so kind and reached out to us. We are very grateful for all the answered prayers we have had in the last couple months!!

Em is holding her sister's hand. It gives you some perspective of how small she is when her hand is this small next to a 5 year olds!!

We got a big snow storm and Jas and Em went and made a big snowman. Em was so excited to have some snow to play in!! We had fun playing in the snow and having a snowball fight too!! I love how excited kids get for the snow!!

We laughed and said it looks like Lily is praying in that picture, with those little hands together. I guess all of our prayers are being answered because she sure is doing great!! She's so fun to hold. She makes the cutest faces, even when she's asleep. She looks like she's laughing sometimes, she'll smile, look like she's going to cry, and makes noises that sound like she's having a bad dream. It's so fun to watch her expressions. She's not awake a whole lot. Sometimes she doesn't even stay awake through her entire bottle!! She has beautiful dark blue eyes and lots of dark hair!!

Little Lily is almost a month old!! She is doing really well and is gaining weight almost daily. She's up to 4 lb. 4 oz. now!!
She has graduated from the incubator to an open crib. That's big, that means she can maintain her own body temperature now instead of the incubator keeping her warm. She still has a little bit of oxygen and a feeding tube but she is moving up to eating from a bottle 3 times a day. She is doing pretty well with it! She is so sweet and tiny. Even though she's over 4 lbs. now she still looks so "mini" as Em calls her! They have let us wheel her down to the glass doors 3 times so Em could see her sister
You can see how small she is next to Jason's hands and from the crib, she's wrapped up in the pink blanket. We can hold her for a little longer now, instead of 15 minutes a day, sometimes for an hour. That's one of the hardest things in this situation, the lack of contact with your baby. She still sleeps a lot but it's hard to be away from her so much. We are just grateful that she is doing so well, growing so quickly and learning to eat on her own! She really has made a ton of progress.

Things I have learned in the past 2 weeks...

- I'm grateful for family. I'm grateful that we have been able to have little Lily join our family.

- I'm so grateful for Jas. He has been there for every worry, every fear, tear and smile. He keeps me in balance and helps so much by working so hard for us, helping around the house, helping with Em and he helps me keep my sanity and perspective.

- I'm grateful that Lily is doing as well as she is. She has her moments that make us worry and we do a lot of worrying, but she has good care and she is doing really well for how little and young she is.

-I'm grateful for modern medicine. Lily is hooked up to monitors and they do monitior her closely and when the alarms go off they are right there to work on her and get her regulated quickly. It's nerve racking but they know what they are doing and they really do a good job.

-I'm grateful for transportation. I can't count the times I've been back and forth from my house to the hospital in the past 2 weeks. I'm so glad I have a car that can get me there!!

-I've learned that when things like this happen you just focus on the most important things. It doesn't matter if the house is spotless, if the grocery shopping is done, if the laundry is folded, or any other trivial things. What matters most is that your family is alive and well and that is it!!!

-You can see Lily grabbing on to Jason's finger. She has really long fingers but they are so small she can't wrap them all the way around his finger.
-This was my first and only time being able to hold her. She isn't big enough to maintain her body temperature so they will only take her out once a day for up to 15 minutes, if she is doing really well. Well, she hasn't been able to come out again, since Sunday. It was an awesome moment to finally get to hold my new baby!!! Hopefully we will have a lot more of that coming up soon!

-Lily is holding her small stuffed animal. It looks -big, since it covers her whole body but the bear is only about 8 inches tall.

-This is one of her favorite positions. She kicks those feet out and tucks her arms under her head and enjoys her warm little tanning bed!!

-I got to try and feed her from a bottle today for the first time. She's still learning how to suck and swallow all together but she's getting there slowly.

-I love this picture of Jas looking at her in her bubble. You can see how they have the hand holes to reach in a touch her and her bubble will still maintain a warm temperature.

-We are grateful she is doing so well and being so active. She is breathing well, eating pretty well, and she is active and not on medication at all. She is fiesty and she's a fighter so we have high hopes that she will grow well and eventually be able to come home big and healthy!!!

This is her bubble home (as we tell Em) right now. You can stick your hands in and touch her and it will still maintain a warm temp inside.

I am holding the tape measure at 12 inches! She's little but doing well!!

Baby Lily

Baby Lily is doing great!!! Yes, she has a name now!! You can see how small she is next to my hand. Also, I am holding the tape measure at 12 inches. She's 15 inches long, but not when she scrunches up!! I put one of my rings almost around all of her toes so it can give you an idea of how little she is!! She is off the ventilator after only 1 day and is breathing on her own, which is amazing for how young and little she is!!! She has oxygen but it's more like a CPAP machine, it's blowing air into her but she is breathing on her own. She loves to stick her feet straight up in the air, it's so funny!!! She still has her eyes covered because she spends most of her time under the lights to help with the jaundice, which is very likely to come because of her age. We are so grateful that she is doing so well and we are so happy to welcome her to our family!!!

BABY HASKINS

Welcome baby Haskins. Name is coming!!! She was born at 3:24 am on Jan. 27th!! She is 9 1/2 weeks early!!! She weighed in at a whopping 3 lbs. 9 oz. and is 15 inches long. They said this is a pretty good size for a 30 weeker, as they are calling her. She's fiesty and doing well. She is in an incubetor and hooked up to a breathing machine, feeding tube, heart and pulse monitor, and a temp monitor. They have the breathing machine on the lowest setting and they are planning to take it out tomorrow, so that is big!

-You can see my mom's 2 hands basically cover all of her

-You can see her in her bubble and my hand next to her little feet

-Jas was gone (supposed to be gone a month) to Virginia for army training. Luckily with some phone calls and a little work we were able to get him home early. He missed the birth but made it here around 1 pm. My mom was with me the whole time and my sister took Em and helped out with her. Paul was here to give me a blessing and help make all the phone calls to get Jas home. I'm so grateful to everyone for their thoughts and prayers and help. We really appreciate it. She is wearing extra, extra premie diapers, they are soooo little. About the size of a purse size kleenex package. Mom and baby are tired but good and grateful that things are going so well!!!