Words from the Heart

We love our little girl so much. 

At birth Jemma was 1000g 2.2 lbs. 

now she is 2.6 ( mostly water weight ) 

at birth she was about 14 inches long. I think 36 cm.... 

her length isn'tmeasured as much, the less they can disturb her the better.

Jemma definitely living up to her in-utero nickname Peanut. Most 31 weekers are 4 lbs.

Getting her out of mom left her pretty bruised and beat up looking. Her leg was very swollen and bruised but thankfully most of her bruises have faded and her blue lights have definitely helped. 

Between her tanning bed sessions and some pretty big poopy diapers, hopefully soon her jaundice will be gone as well. The doctor increased her feeds in frequency and volume, mom is eagerily waiting for the green light to try breast feeding but that still several weeks away. 

Captain Sassypants loves to stick her little tongue out at her nurses ,well everyone really. And when she cries she sounds like a raptor from Jurassic park. She may be little, but she be fierce. This girl isn't being held back and is showing that not even a hole in her heart or brain bleeding is gonna stop her. She is thriving fighting and being sassy. 

She already is brining her finger to her mouth and sucking (not something a child with brain damage would do) and she lifted her head up when she was doing skin to skin with mommy today. Most of her movements are involuntary and she was pretty unhappy with her CPAP mask yesterday, and was making clear attempts to yank it off! 

God created a pretty cool little kid With Jemma. Jakin I, between our tears, are excited to see what God has in store for her. We are going to be followed very closely by therapists, her pediatricion and early intervention specialists. They will all be watching to make sure CPT Sassypants is meeting her milestones. As her mother, despite my years of training as a preschool teacher, may be slightly biased. In the words of Ralphs teacher from a Christmas story "A+ +  + + + + + ". 

Mom is doing alright pumping away, its nice in a way to have a job and feel like I am a active part of the team. Recovering from the C-Section is coming along nicely, thankfully there were no complications. I was up and walking to my daughter's incubator 14 hours after surgery, which would have been quicker but the nurse wouldn't let me out of bed. 

Dad is already all Jemma wants anything to do with. During their snuggle time, she kept opening her eyes and looking at him. She searched for his finger under the blanket and held it the entire time. When he talks jemma looks for him and is visably calmer, and her stats are better when hes talking. Already a daddy's girl! I think she came early just because she wanted him to hold her.

Its only been 6 days and Jemma is considered the darling of the NICU. Nurses will stay after their shift to do special things for her or just stand by her incubator and coo over how cute and feisty she is. One of the day charge nurse Meagan absolutely adores hers. Jemma is her special little sweetie. The nurses in her NICU, even the ones I may have butted heads with, are all absolutely amazing at their jobs and they care so much about their tiny patients. Even though its a 45 min drive to the hospital, this is one of the best NICUs in country and the only lvl 4 NICU in the state. A 45 min drive is actually a blessing.  

Thank you for keeping our darling Peanut in your prayers, she is already an amazing miracle and even though it hurts to see our daughter so fragile and helpless, she has a super strength in inside her and a loving heavenly Father watching over her who knit her together perfectly and called her by name and has a wonderful plan for life  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose.