10/1 week old

We have completed a week at home, and we are all still alive. Some more sleep deprived than others, but we are happy to be together! Sadie's actual age is 10 weeks, and her corrected age is one week. She is slowly gaining weight. She eats every three hours, and I alternate between a higher calorie formula and breast milk. They want her to have as many extra calories as she can so she can grow. She now weighs 6.lb-11 oz.
The sisters enjoy having her around, and I like that they can entertain Sadie! Analise is a big help, and Maisie tries to be. :)
We are adjusting to the monitor and oxygen. Thankfully we don't have many alarms. It's not very easy packing her up to take her anywhere. She has only been on a couple of outings, and it's a good thing she is light in the carseat. By the time you add the other things, you have your arms full!
I still see her as our miracle baby and sometimes get overwhelmed with God's faithfulness!

She's Home!

The day has finally arrived...Sadie is home! I remember being in the hospital and flipping the calendar to February and wondering if May would ever come. The doctors said from the beginning that she would come home around her due date, and they were right! She was home one day before her due date.
Brandon and I were excited to go get her, but we will miss the great nurses and doctors. The nurses will miss Sadie as well.
Sadie slept the entire two hour drive home, so that was nice. She had a good first night at home. I have to wake her every three hours to feed her, so I am up an hour, sleep two hours...the night goes quickly and morning comes too soon.
Analise just LOVES having her baby sister home and is doing a great job with her. She is so sensitive that the first time she heard Sadie crying, Analise almost had tears, too. Though Sadie is home, we aren't quite a family of five - Maisie has a fever, so she is staying at her grandparents.
It's an odd feeling to have a newborn at home and feeling so well. I'm used to feeling slow and sore with a new baby at home.
We are getting used to Sadie having long "tails" wherever we go. She's on oxygen and the apnea monitor. So far we haven't had any alarms, and we pray we don't!
We are just in awe and thankful to God to be here alive where we are.

Full Term

Sweet Sadie is now considered full term! She has had a good week, and she will reach the 6 lb. mark any day. Amazing. I was able to go visit with her on Weds., and my sister in law came with me. We both gave Sadie a bottle because she was a stinker and refused to nurse. She has been doing SO much better with the bottles. I tried not to be too discouraged with her not nursing. I know she can do it, and once she is home we will have more opportunities to practice. However, we will still take your prayers on this issue. :)
Since Sadie's eyes look mature, they have actually increased her oxygen amount. They don't have to be so conservative on the amount since her eyes look so good. Now they don't want the heart to work too hard. Since they've bumped her up, she has been more alert and feeding better. They are also cutting back on some of her extra calories to see if she can still gain weight.
Brandon and I go this Monday to be trained for the monitor. One night next week I plan on rooming in with Sadie, and then she can come home! PTL!
She is progressing nicely and passed the hearing test yesterday. Thanks for all your prayers. We can't wait for you to meet her....soon!

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there. It was a good day in the Luke household. I am very thankful to be alive to celebrate this day with my husband and two girls. I missed having my third one with us. I guess I was able to celebrate with her yesterday. Brandon and I were able to spend about four hours with her, and the time flies! Sadie nursed some and also took a bottle for me. She just kept getting sleepy. While she slept, both Brandon and I were able to snuggle with her. I was also able to give her a bath...lots of fun! She doesn't even fuss.
Sadie also saw other family members this weekend. Grandma and Grandpa Luke stopped in on Friday to see her. When they walked in the room, Sadie was in a bouncer. They said it was fun to see her that way. Also, A. Sarena was able to see Sadie for a short time.
The doctor this weekend told us that Sadie is getting closer to coming home and to plan on a couple of weeks. The countdown is beginning!
I just talked with her nurse and learned that she has taken several full feedings in a row. Yeah! She has to master this before she can come home. They are going to try keeping her oxygen level at 90 cc to help her stay more "alert" so she can continue to feed and grow. They aren't concerned about the oxygen effecting her eyes anymore since she is older and her eyes are looking good. Her weight this weekend was 5 lb. 10 oz. We are still praying for her lung development and also for the transition home. She will probably come home with the oxygen and monitor. We will have training with all the equipment before we bring her home, but I still get a little nervous thinking about it all. God continues to see us through each and every day!

Sleepy Snuggles

Thanks to my great sister in law for watching my two oldest girls, I was able to go see Sadie today. It's a nice middle of the week visit. I was with her almost four hours, and she slept until the very end of my time. She then decided to wake up. I tried giving her a bottle, but she was too sleepy. It was nice to hold and snuggle with her. Besides being sleepy, she seems to be doing well. She is still doing really well on the low flow oxygen, and the numbers of cc's (how they measure it) is down some. We keep praying for that! She now weighs 5 pounds 6 ounces. Her eyes are looking more blue and less like the dark color she was born with. I also think her hair is beginning to lighten some. She had another eye check this week, and her retinas look mature. Thank you Lord! We anticipate her being there a couple more weeks. Thank you again for your continued prayers!

7 weeks already

I have to admit...this picture is from last week. I didn't take any this weekend, but I felt bad about not posting one. If it makes you feel any better, she hasn't changed that much. :)Sadie has made some good strides forward this week. Earlier in the week they tried taking her off of vapotherm (her method of getting oxygen) and putting her on what's called low-flow oxygen. It's 100% oxygen without the pressure behind it. She was on it less than 24 hours because she wasn't doing too well.However, they tried switching her over to low-flow again on Friday, and she was doing great!  She and I had a great weekend together!  Friday evening she took a full bottle feeding at 5:00, and then she nursed a full feeding at 8:00! She was wide awake and did so well. She even let me know when she needed to burp, and I was able to understand the cue. Yeah!  Saturday we got a couple hours of snuggle time after another good nursing session. She fell fast asleep in my arms. She now weighs 5 lbs. 2 oz. Her tummy size is down 1 cm already from being off the vapotherm. I know I am her mom, but I have to say she is just a sweetie. You'd think it would be hard leaving her at the hospital and driving two hours to home, and it is. However, it was almost harder leaving her this time after she is doing so well. Maybe seeing her improve makes me even more anxious having her home. I'm ready to hold  her whenever I want and not wait for a nurse to come in the room and give me permission. Thanks for your continued prayers; please continue!This morning at church I got a little teary eyed when we sang a worship song, "Blessed be Your Name." There is a line in the song that says, "You give and take away..You give and take away...my  heart will choose to say, Lord blessed be your name." Many weeks ago when all this turmoil began, Brandon and I thought of this song and this line often. We were committed to praising the Lord whether He were to give or take away. And there was a day when we thought we'd lost Sadie. It was a tough, tough day. However, here I was in church several weeks later, feeling great, with a sweet daughter that's progressing well...singing this song...the Lord decided to "give." We are forever grateful!