I'm sorry it's been a few days since the last update! Always assume that no news is good news when you don't hear from us.

We have both officially gone back to work while we wait for our precious angel to come home. It's extremely hard on both of us, but we're making it. Hence the reason I haven't had time to update the blog lately. By the time we get home at night...maybe grab a bite to eat...it's time to turn around and take the 30 minute trek to the hospital. I'll be so thankful when I don't have to see the sprawling Birmingham skyline at night.

Itty Bit is doing well. Yesterday she had her DTaP vaccination. This is for Diptheria, Tetanus & Pertussis (Whooping Cough). Normally she wouldn't get it for 2 more weeks (at 8 weeks old), but since she tested positive for Whooping Cough, the Health Dept has recommended she receive it early. We were very nervous because there are lots of scary side effects, like fever, seizures and even brain damage. And since we've been living in a world where "rare" things seem to affect us, the shot scared us. But other than being very sleepy, she tolerated it well.

Her hematocrit levels are dropping again, so she'll likely need another blood transfusion next week. They are waiting until next week for 2 reasons. First, to see if she's started making her own blood, and second, they have to wait for my blood to get there.

I gave blood for her yesterday (first time I've ever given blood)...The docs originally wanted Owen's blood, so that we could minimize the donors and her exposure, but Owen can't donate again until the 24th, and we need blood now. So we ran out to the Red Cross downtown to donate as fast as we could yesterday. They have to send the blood to Atlanta for processing, so we're in a holding pattern now, waiting to see if my blood can in fact be used.

In 2 weeks she'll get another bone density scan to check on her "Osteopenia of Prematurity." She currently has "brittle bones" because it is during the 3rd trimester that she would have received calcium from my body to help her bones grow. Since we didn't even make it a day into the 3rd trimester, she didn't get any of that extra calcium from me. They are giving her vitamins and supplements now, so that should be helping. And the scan in 2 weeks will tell us that.

She's up to 2lbs 11.6oz, the little porker! (That's 1235 grams!) Only 4.4ozs to go until she's 3lbs!! She's starting to look very different in the face, and her body is getting just a tad chubbier. She's still itty bitty, but I can tell a huge difference from day to day.

I've recently started "Kangaroo Care" with her. This is where they place the baby (wearing only her diaper) on my chest for skin to skin contact. It is a very special time for me, and I cherish every second of it. There are many benefits for her...

• Normalize temperature, heart rate, and respiratory rate
• The maternal contact causes a calming effect with decreased stress and rapid quiescence
• Reduced physiologic and behavioural pain responses
• Increased weight gain
• Enhanced mother-infant bonding
• Positive effects on infant’s cognitive development
• Less nosocomial infection, severe illness, or lower respiratory tract disease
• Restful sleep
• Earlier discharge
• Possible reduced risk of sudden infant death
• Normalized infant growth of premature infants
• May be a good intervention for colic
• Possible positive effects in motor development of infants

Now that she's over 1200 grams, we can hold her twice a day! That excites me to no end! I can't wait until we can hold her every time we visit with no time limit. I can't even begin to describe the feeling that comes over me when our "time is up" and the nurses take her from me. Some days I wish I could just run with her in my arms as fast as I can. But I know that's not best for her...I don't even have a car seat, so we wouldn't get far!!! (Kidding...I would never do that!) But now that she's starting to look more like a "term" baby, it's getting harder and harder to leave her there.

All in all she's doing well. Our prayers are continuing to be answered, and soon we'll have our little bugger home. That will be THE happiest day of my life.

Here's some pictures of Owen holding her for the first time this week.

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Last night the little bugger pulled out her TP tube, which is the feeding tube that goes straight into her intestines. She did it the night before too, but they put it back this time. I think she was trying to tell them she's ready to try the OG tube again...because when she did it a second time, they decided to leave it out. And so far so good. Just a trace of residual - which means she's tolerating it so far!!! They have had to decrease the amount she's getting right now, since they have to wait to see how much she'll tolerate. Right now she's getting 21cc's for an hour, then a 3 hour break. Then starts over.

Since she's in her new little house, she's doing much better! Only 2-3 Brady's in a day, and just up and down on her O2 levels...which is normal right now.

In her house she can wear clothes! So I dressed her as soon as I could! The nurses loved her outfits! We will donate them to the NICU when she's done with them. But as you can see from the pictures below, even the preemie sizes are too big for her. They are too big in the shoulders and in the bottom! But she'll grow into them. I need to stop buying preemie stuff, and start buying "term" baby sizes...otherwise she'll be naked by Christmas!!!

Here's some pictures for those that can't see the slide show...and the slide show is below. (I think if you click on the slide show, you can see the entire album at once, rather than having to wait for each picture to load. But don't hold me to that!)

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When Sayla Grace gets bigger, I'm not sure how I'm going to handle her doctor visits when she has to get shots. Yesterday, to prepare for her eye exam, she had to get 3 eye drops in her eyes, and I almost lost it. She was not a happy camper, and has an amazing ability to squeeze her eyes shut so tight it almost required two people to open them for the drops.

After the drops, (which were put in to dilate her eyes for the exam) and the army it took to get them in, her eyes were super swollen and red. And she was none too happy about it. And neither was I.

I stayed as long as they would let me, to calm her down (and to calm myself down!) and then went to run a few errands before the next set of visiting hours. During that time she got her exam.

When I got back, the nurse explained how they do the exam...the doctor has a tiny instrument that holds her eye lids open. Then he uses another tiny instrument directly on her eyeball to hold it still. You see, her eye muscles are not strong enough to hold her eyes still on her own - they go in every direction, and sometimes not at the same time! So once her eyes are still, the doc uses another tool to look into the back of her eyes at her retinas.

And then we got the report...she does NOT have ROP!!!! Praise the Lord!! At least not at the moment. She is still at risk for developing it, so she'll have another exam in 2 weeks just like this one.

She is improving on her Brady episodes - only about 2 or 3 a day, but she still has swings in her O2 levels. This is normal for her age/size. Which by the way is 2lbs 7oz and 14.5in long!! She's gained a pound and an ounce since her lowest weight of 1lb 6oz, and an entire inch in her length since her birth!!!

Since she's doing better with her Brady's and her desats are manageable, she's got some new digs!! Today when I went to visit, she was in an isolette!! This is a step up from the open bed that she was in. An isolette (aka an incubator) is a fully covered bed with 4 holes for our arms. This bed has better temperature control - so her body temp can be controlled better, and is quieter. Once babies her size get in this bed, they grow, grow grow!! Something about the regulated temp and quietness. I think because it gives them more uninterrupted sleep. And sleep equals growth.

And the most fun for me about her new little house, is that she can WEAR CLOTHES!!! I've got a basket of miniature preemie clothes that I'm taking up to her tonight. I can't wait to pick out her first "outfit" for her!!!

Her room at home is coming together slowly but surely. After a near loss of one of the dressers on the way home (it almost fell out of the back of the truck when we were getting off the interstate!), we got it all home safely. I put the crib and the hutch together (by myself!!!) and got her bed made. The 2 dressers are too heavy to bring in the house without a furniture dolly, so we will get those in the house and put together when we can get the dolly from Granddaddy Johnny's house. I'll post pictures of her nursery once it's finished!

Here's some single pictures, for those that aren't able to see the slide shows. And below the single pics is a slide show of the latest round of pics. The isolette pictures haven't been uploaded yet...so you'll have to wait just a bit to see those! Sorry!!

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SGP continues to do well. She now weighs 2lbs 6.6ozs! She's starting to "fill out" and get a tiny bit of chunkiness to her. She now has little bitty baby fat neck rolls, and tiny thighs you just want to squeeze! She's still tiny mind you, but she's starting to look more "baby" like.

Her A&B episodes are improving. They have increased her caffeine dosage to help with that, since she grew out of her last dosage. All IV's are out (for the moment) and she's no longer on antibiotics. For now she just eats, sleeps and poops!

She's eating 9cc's every hour for 3 hours, and is back down to 24 calories per feeding. They decreased her caloric intake because the 28 calories was just too much for her tiny belly. It was giving her gas and making her belly puffy. So back down to 24 we went, and she tolerated it better.

She's pooping like a champ now. No more extra help needed!

She had her standard Monday morning chest x-ray yesterday, and it came back with a good report! It's still "hazy," but it's slightly improved from last week, but still consistent with RDS. So prayerfully she's growing out of her RDS and it will continue to get better.

She will be getting a visit from the eye doctor either this week or next week. He will be checking for Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), which is common in preemies. ROP is an eye disease that is thought to be caused by disorganized growth of retinal blood vessels which may result in scarring and retinal detachment. ROP can be mild and may resolve on its own, but may lead to blindness in serious cases.

All preterm babies are at risk for ROP, and since she had a very low birth weight, this is an additional risk factor. Too much extra oxygen can also contribute to ROP.

During this first visit, the eye doctor will put drops in her eyes, and look into the back of them with a special tiny instrument - I assume like at the big people eye doctor - though this will be done in her crib. He will be looking for the disorganized blood vessels in her retinas, as well as scarring. There are 5 stages of ROP, with stages 1-3 being less severe.

We are prepared that she's got some form of ROP given her age at birth and birth weight. But we're prayerful that it's only stage 1 or 2. She'll get eye exams frequently now, because if she has ROP, it will likely progress (though it can disappear on its own). They will need to keep an eye on her retinas, to be sure they don't start to detach.

If they detach completely, she will be blind. If they catch it before it detaches (which they likely will if we get to that point), they will give her tiny laser eye surgery to reattach her retinas, and all will be ok.

Laser surgery is absolute worse case scenario. Well, I guess absolute worse case is that she's blind. But from what I can tell, her eyes are working just fine. She is able to track voices with her eyes, and my finger if I put it very close to her eyes (since her vision is like 20/400 right now). So we'll just wait for the eye docs report and go from there.

Please be in prayer that her eyes are amazingly PERFECT and she has no problems with her retinas or any other part of her eyes. Pray that the doctors will be surprised by the good health of her eyes, and be forced to look on God's amazing abilities as the only explanation!

Also, in case you're wondering, they won't test her hearing until she gets a bit older. She's just now developing visible ear canals, so her ears are still forming. But I can assure you that she can hear! She opens her eyes at the sound of mine and Owen's voices, and gets visibly irritated when her neighbor's monitors beep for too long.

In other news, we're picking up her furniture today!!! I'm super excited to finally see it, because it picked it out from a catalog. Since I haven't actually been able to lay my hands or eyes on it, I'm kind of nervous about it! I hope I picked out the right thing for her! And I hope it all fits into her bedroom!! I can't wait to finally get her bedding into her crib and start decorating her room!!

Also, I went to Baby Palooza this weekend. It wasn't what I thought it was going to be, so we didn't stay long. It was a bunch of vendors like hospitals, children's gyms, photographers (check out my favorite children's photog...Abernathy Photographics...in my Links to Love section!!) and the like. I don't really need any of that kind of stuff right now, so I made a beeline to the VERY few clothing vendors and bought the cutest pink smocked dress for SGP! (Pictures later).

I'll post pics of Sayla Grace (and her new dress that she won't be able to wear until she's 12!) shortly. First I've got to finish clearing out her room before Owen and Granddaddy Johnny (Owen's dad) get back with her furniture!!

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