Emma Claire's Pictures

Sunday, Tarrah came and did a photo shoot with Emma Claire.  To say they turned our wonderful is an UNDERSTATEMENT!  She did a beautiful job of capuring Emma Claire and us.  I cannot wait to see the rest of them, I know they will be just as AWESOME!  You can see a sneak peek at her blog by going to http://tarrahosborne.blogspot.com/2010/05/meet-emma-claire.html.  Enjoy!

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

Mom and I were doing tummy time with Emma Claire the other day and all of the sudden she was on her side and then rolled to her belly and back to her side. I wanted to get a quick video of it and she was not as cooperative the second time around. However, if you get EC to her side, she will roll to her belly and then back again. We are so proud of her!!! She just continues to AMAZE us each and every day! GOD has truly blessed us beyond measure and he continues to reveal to us how he is working in her life.


Matt's mom stayed with us a couple of nights this week and what a HUGE help it is to have. We were going to lunch on Monday at Sonic to get a little bite to eat and of course 1/2 price drinks! We were talking about how blessed we are and God's plans for our little one. We don't know how he is going to use Emma Claire, but I know beyond a shadow of doubt, he will use her for his GLORY! HE has brought her through so much and my heart just busts at the seams with JOY!


I keep going back to so many verses, but this one I love and speaks so true to our situation
James 1:2 ~ Consider it pure JOY, my brothers and sisters, when you face trials of many kinds


We go through so many trials and tribulations in life and I DO consider it pure JOY because I know my SAVIOR is with me through it all. He will use everything for this GLORY!

We All Say.....

AHHHHHH!!! Matt loves to give Emma Claire 'eskimo kisses'. I love this picture and glad to have the camera handy one afternoon.
This is just to funny not to share. Matt loves to imitate people and Emma Claire is no exception. He always says she looks around with one eye open and she was looking around with one eye open and one eye closed and Matt decided to do the same thing. I hope she grows up with his sense of humor, it definitely keeps me laughing on a daily basis!

EC's Nursery + Fun Pics

Wow, time flies! Emma Claire turned 4 months old on Monday. She is now up to 6 lbs 4 ounces and about 19~20 inches long. She continues to get bigger each time we go to the doctor and we could not be happier.

On Tuesday, we had our first appointment at the BPD (bronchopulmonary dyplasia) clinic. BPD is a type of chronic lung disease and since we came home on O2, we have to go to this clinic at Vandy Childrens to follow up with the pulmonologist. Since EC was on oxygen more than 30 days she was diagnosed with mild chronic lung disease. Hopefully by the time she is a year old, she will have replaced most of her 'bad' lung tissue with new 'healthy' lung tissue. Everything looked great to them and they typically make no changes at the first visit. We met with them for about 2 hours and went over her entire history and also provided them with information on how well she does without the oxygen. We took her off of it for about 3~4 hours on Sunday and she did so well. EC kept up her sats in the high 90s which is what the BPD clinic will look for when they do their own testing during our next appt on June 22nd. We pray she will only need the oxygen for bedtime or not at all. There are times, her nasal cannulas come out and she does fine or I have even forgotten to turn on her oxygen when putting her to bed. So all in all, she is doing GREAT!!! Now, that I have everything completed in her nursery, I decided to take pics and post them for everyone to see. It has been a blast to get everything together for her nursery and I still have a couple of items left, but for the most part it is DONE!!!

Mom and I made her curtains and then I went into labor the Sunday after we completed and hung them. Mom's best friend Deborah came to the rescue and finished her bumpers and bed skirt and I am so grateful. It was nice to not have to worry about getting it done while Emma Claire was so fragile in the early days.

Deborah also made a cushion for Emma Claire's rocker. This rocker belonged to Matt's daddy and I repainted it green to match the green accents in her room.

This is her bed and bedding. The inside of the bumper is geometric circles and the outside is a paisley which is mostly green with different shades of pink and it is outlined in chocolate brown. The bed skirt is a stripe which has all of the same colors. I was so happy when I found the material at Hobby Lobby and it all coordinated with everything. I was not looking to paint her room pink, but since my office is already green, I went with this salmon/melon color which is in the material. Matt kept telling me how stimulated she would be all of the time, but I think it works now that everything is in the room.

This is the saying I ordered for over EC's bed, I.LOVE.IT!! I'm so glad to have it and I put it up today as soon as I received it in the mail. I think I might hang some pictures of EC under it. I have not completely decided yet, more to come....

All of Emma Claire's clothes up to 9 months. A HUGE thanks to my SIL Jenn in letting us use all of Madison's clothes. This is only a portion of them and we are so thankful to be able to use all of her clothes. She also has a dresser full of gowns and other clothes which we did not hang up. She is a BLESSED child when it comes to being dressed to the nine's all of the time!

Since our guest bathroom needed an update as well, Mom and I decided to make a new shower curtain to tie in my office and EC's room. We found a green and white material at Hobby Lobby which matched the green in my office and the green in EC's bedding material. Mom sewed the curtain together and then I made the button holes and tied green ribbon to hang it. I thought the green ribbon would make it look a little girly and then did some touches to bring in the main color in EC's room. I took a art canvas and painted it her room color and then found the coordinating letters and painted those chocolate brown and glued them on the canvas and hung it with chocolate brown ribbon. I thought it turned out really cute without looking babyish.

Mom found the melon colored towels at Macy's and they were the perfect touch to bring in a little more color. All in all I was ecstatic after we completed the bathroom.

That is everything we have been up to lately. We are just hanging out most days at the house. Sometimes we venture out, but just for small trips. It's nice to get out of the house for a little bit and enjoy this nice weather we have been having!

Mother's Day and So Much More

Wow, it has been a while since I have blogged. It was so nice to celebrate my first Mother's Day with my mom and Matt's mom. We had our families over to the house for some grilled burgers and a good time. It was nice to just hang around the house and not have to be too busy and just enjoy our families. We are so fortunate to have both of our families close and I.Love.It! It was a wonderful present to just have my sweet pea home for Mother's Day, she just amazes me each day and my heart melts every time I look at her and see how far we have come and cannot wait to see what God has in store for our little miracle. I cannot wait for Emma Claire to grow up and see what Godly examples both of our mothers have been for me and Matt and I hope to be for her. We have definitely been busy with Emma Claire and other things. Last Saturday Matt and I headed to Murfreesboro to see Jake (matt's brother) graduate from college. We dropped Emma Claire off at Mom and Dad's and they had a blast watching her for us. It was nice to get out of the house for a while. We had a nice time and had dinner at Red Lobster....yummmmm!

Emma Claire and her Daddy! He is definitely getting use out of his recliner. I believe they have both enjoyed rocking to sleep in it.

We went to our four month checkup today and EC is definitely growing like a little weed. She is now 6 lbs 3 ounces and 18.5 inches long. Her pediatrician is very happy with her progress and we go back in a month for another growth check, but everything else was perfect. We have changed her feeding schedule a little bit and we are now feeding her 65 cc every 4 hours and then I can just nurse her for her 1 AM feeding and not have to feed her a bottle afterwards, which will be nice. If she continues to tolerate the feeds, then about every 7 to 10 days we can continue to increase her breast milk intake. All in all, we have nothing to complain about and she is doing wonderful.

Of course, this child is always dressed and especially on Sunday's when Mom comes up to watch her when we go to church. This girl loves some bows in her hair and she knows when she looks cute. After you get her dressed and dolled up and start to tell her how cute she is, she just coos in her own Emma Claire way and smiles, so PRECIOUS!

Daddy giving Emma Claire a bath in her big girl tub. She loves her some bath time. When you first put her in the water, she's not really sure about it, but within 5 seconds, she is kicking her legs and trying to drink her bath water.

I don't think we have anything else going on right now. Just love having her home and preparing myself for going back to work full time in a few weeks. I know I will still get to be at home with her all day long, but it will be different working 8 hours a day since I have been off or part time since the middle of January. We are so blessed to find Emma Claire a sitter to come to our house 4 days a week. We are so excited to have Keith come and take care of her. I know he will spoil her rotten.

Three generations....wish we could have had my grandmother here with us, that would have been 4 generations of girls on my mom's side of the family!

Love to all and please keep us in prayer for our visit to the BPD clinic next Tuesday. We will see what the pulmonologist says about her oxygen and what changes we can make. We hope to be off the oxygen or at least only use at night and then be completely off of it. We try her off of it periodically throughout the day and she does very well, so we shall see.

Praise God for all of our Blessings!

May Day

and since it was dreary we decided to do a picture overload post today! Emma Claire has adjusted well to being at home, or at least I think so. She is still on her same schedule she was when she was in the NICU which means she still eats every three hours. We are getting sleep at night since we take turns feeding her. Matt feeds her at 11 PM and then I do the 2 AM feeding since I am up pumping anyways during that time and then Matt does the 5 AM feeding. This schedule really works for us and we hope Emma Claire and continue to go longer at night in a few weeks. We will work on her schedule once we take her to her 4 month checkup in a couple of weeks.Emma Claire's great-grandmother came for a visit today. This was the first time she got to hold her and she loved every minute of it.

Sleeping with her daddy. EC loves her some daddy time, especially keeping him up after her 11 PM feeding each night. I think she just wants to play and daddy is ready to go back to bed!

Emma Claire is going to be a girl with a love of shoes, or at least mommy does. This are some shoes knitted by Ann, a lady my mom works with. They are too cute and she has a couple of hats which match her cute shoes.

Loves this blanket we received from a couple at church. Emma Claire might have come into this world a wee little one, but PRAISE GOD she is now 5 lbs 8 ounces as of Wednesday. We went to the pediatrician on Wednesday for our first visit and all went very well. We did not get to see her regular peds, but we saw one of his partners and she was very nice and took good care of us. Their office is not that busy and as soon as we walked in, they put us back in a treatment room since she is so vunerable to germs right now. I appreciated those little things so much.

Her Nana(s) loves some big bows, OH.MY.SOUL! I'm sure there will be more pictures of these to come. HaHa. Emma Claire does look pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself.

Having some Nana (Matt's mom) love time. This child is not short of some grandparent love. I am so thankful both sets of her grandparents live so close to us. It is a blessing to me to have her grow up around them.

I don't think Nana (my mom) wanted to put her down. She held her all afternoon and then most of the day on Saturday! Mom is going to watch her on Sunday's for a while so we can still go to church, so I bet Emma Claire will not get put down at all on those days! There is nothing like a Nana's love.

We continue to do well with having her home and it has been nice. We had a special visitor on Friday, Stacy (EC's primary nurse in the NICU) came up with her kiddo's. I wish I would have gotten some pictures. It was nice to just relax at the house and visit. It was a beautiful day on Friday, so we took EC outside for a bit and she loved it. I know we will have more special visits from her other nurses which took care of her and it will be so much fun to go visit them and the doctor's and other staff in the NICU in a couple of weeks!

Much love to everyone who follows us on here, we are so blessed to have so many prayer warriors during this time and we continue to pray she grows healthy and strong each and every day.

~As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD~

100 Days

Suzanne and Emma Claire
Stacy and Emma Claire

Thanks for taking such good care of me while I was in the unit on days. I don't have a picture of my night nurses, but I love them just as much! I cannot wait for you guys to see me grow up big and strong. I promise I will come back for visits, you know how much my mommy loves those Ms. Fields cookies down in the cafeteria! HaHa. I know my mommy and daddy are so grateful for the wonderful care I received while in the NICU from all of the nurses, RT's, doctor's and other staff members. I love that everyone would come by and talk to me during the day and night. I love each and every one of you guys and I will see you later, gotta go get my belly full!

Love,
Emma Claire
We have gone from the above to the below in 100 days! Also on our 100th day, we came HOME!!!! PRAISE GOD! We have been through a journey to say the least and one that GOD has continued to be by our side even before Emma Claire was born. She has come a long way and we give GOD all of the glory, honor and praise! It was hard to leave yesterday knowing we would not be back which is AWESOME, but it was bittersweet to leave some many faces we who we have come to love and cherish over our 100 days in the NICU! I know we will see them again during visits to the unit, but when going to Baptist NICU is your daily routine it is hard to leave. I'm so glad one of our primary nurses was there yesterday to walk us out. I told Suzanne it was not good bye, but a see you later as I know we will see them again soon.

Emma Claire is now up to 5 lbs 4 3/4 ounces but since she does not get weighed everyday, we will have to wait until tomorrow to see what her weight is since leaving the hospital. Tomorrow is our first pediatrician appointment in White House and I know that should go smooth tomorrow. Matt and I are both off this week with her and probably next week, we will just have to wait and see how this week goes. We go to the Vanderbilt BPD Clinic in a couple of weeks (for her mild chronic lung disease = being on O2 more than 30 days in the NICU) for follow up since we came home on oxygen, apnea monitors and a pulse oximeter. I did not want to come home on the oxygen, but it has not been bad at all and we have a tank in her room and one in the living room which makes it much easier to take her between the two areas.

This all started last Tuesday when Dr. Rojas was on his last week of rotation. He ALWAYS says it is his job to get rid of things and his last job was to discharge us. He was not there when we were discharged, but he started the path for us. On Tuesday, he threw out the feeding tube and took away her caffiene and said if she has no spells in 5 days, we are going home. When Stacy told me this, I think my mouth hit the floor. I was shocked to say the least, but in a GOOD way! Matt and I roomed in on Saturday night and Sunday morning and we did all of her care and feedings for almost 24 hours. She did so good and we actually got some rest eventhough she eats every 3 hours like clockwork. You know we, I LOVE an organized baby! HaHa

We ran a few errands on Sunday and got ready to bring her home on Monday. Matt and I got up and went to the hospital on Monday morning and we were out of there about 12:30 PM after saying our see you laters to all of our friends. PRAISE GOD we are no longer the oldest in the unit, we will give that honor to the other babies!

She loves her carseat and did so good on the ride home and for her first day/night at home. We still have to keep her on her feeding schedule of 8-11-2-5, but that is okay and works really well for us right now. I'm sure we will be at the peds office frequently for weight checks and to work with Dr. Kastner on increasing her feeds when needed. Right now she needs to continue to gain weight and stay HEALTHY.

I know Emma Claire would love some visitors, but we need to keep her safe and healthy. If you do want to come see her, please call and let us know before you come. I definitely want everyone to be able to see her, but if you have been sick or not feeling well, we have to keep her healthy, so please let us know and we will see you when you get better. We will not be going out for a while for two reasons, all of her equipment right now and again, our main priority of getting her used to our house and germs and not exposing her to too much right now. I'm am SO THANKFUL we are not in RSV season, but that does not mean she still cannot get sick. Thanks for your understanding!