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!!