Keeping D Germ Free

I just wanted to thank everyone that has been so supportive of us in our efforts to keep our home and Darbi germ free. In time, we hope that you all can meet our sweet little miracle girl but for now, our priority is keeping her healthy. I know it is not sick season but we're not about to take any chances. If she gets sick, we have potential to land right back in the hospital with her. Come October, RSV season begins and although she will be getting a monthly Synagis shot, a bout of RSV will land her back in the hospital. It's taken a lot just to get her here with us now. We don't want to make it any harder for her. Right now, any hurt feelings are second to Darbi's health. Please don't take it personal but her health and safety is our top priority right now.

Birds & Butterflies

For now, we don't have an apartment big enough for Darbi to have her own room but I have ideas for how I want it decorated when we do. I have started on a few things but I'm not done with them all. Today I finished making Darbi her own butterfly collage. About a year ago I made one for myself based on what I found here.

Here's mine...
And here's Darbi's...


I've been working on this mobile for above Darbi's crib and I still need to add a little bit of paint in a few places and some glitter so that it catches the light better. I want it to be a bit more stimulating for her. It looks so much cuter in person! I took this idea and tweeked it a little.. Can you tell I'm a fan of Ali Edwards? :) Just her projects.. not her scrapbook pages so much.

Snowies

I've been craving a snow cone for d-a-y-s. So today, after egg salad sandwiches, Clint and I went on a little walk with Big D to get one. She screamed for the first 10 minutes and then pretty much screamed herself to sleep. So it was a nice walk! I went running yesterday and my legs. are. sore. It was a good walk and I forgot to wear a belt today and my pants were falling down the whole time so I felt SO SKINNY!! Like I said.. GOOD walk. And I got passion fruit with cream... Meh. Don't waste your $2 on that bad boy.

Ode to my Breast Pump

Dear Ameda 307573,

We've been through a lot together. I'm not gonna lie. I haven't liked it all that much. Sorry. We have grown together though and it seems that you were, at times, literally attached to me. If it makes you feel better, I thought about you constantly. Every 3 hours we would meet, 8 times a day, for months. Luckily, for you, I remembered to call and report about how well we were working together. I left 24 messages throughout our time together so I could keep you.

Do you remember... it was hard at first. You had me discouraged often and there were times when I was ready to part ways earlier than anticipated. But in time, it became easier. We had our special little spot set up by my craft table and we would watch movies and scrapbook and pump.

Do you remember the people I work with who would walk in during our time together? We gave them a good laugh about it. They will always remember the awkward moments you and I gave them. (Sorry Josh!) :)

And do you remember that time I stopped at Arby's after work on my way out to my car? I went in to get a drink before my trip to the hospital and you were so heavy that I had to set you on the counter in front of the newly-hired-16-year-old Arby's employee. I always tried to be discrete but I was just so comfortable with you that I would forget. The sweet boy asked me if you were one of those cool new paper cutting things (ie: a Cricut - oh the ignorance. :) Casually, I told him you were "a breastpump!!". Boy was he embarressed. I'm not going to lie.. I was proud of what you and I had accomplished!

Do you remember the day I managed to pump 33 ounces thanks to you? I called almost everyone in my phonebook to report the news! It was a glorious day!

I hope you know important you have been to me these last 6 months. Tomorrow I have to give you back. Maybe someday we will meet again but hopefully... we won't. No hard feelings.

Thanks for the milk,
Audrey

P.S. If it makes you feel better, Darbi says thanks! :)

Smiles for Daddy - I can't get enough of this girl!!

Kids On The Move

Today I met with my Kids On The Move rep to see if Darbi qualified to be a part of their program. They are an Early Intervention program and basically, what they do is come out, however often I want (I think) and help with any developmental delays that Darbi may have. Ellen from Hawaii was our rep and she was so nice! When she called me yesterday to set up an appointment, she was asking questions about Darbi to get ready to come see her. The more I told her, the move excited she was to come see her! The earliest baby she had been out to see was a 26 weeker and she could no believe how well (according to me) Darbi was doing! Long story short, Darbi is doing so well... that she doesn't even qualify to be a part of the Kids On The Move program!! Can you believe it?!

She did this survey thing and scored it and Darbi needed to be scored as Severe-Moderately Disabled in order to qualify and she only scored Mildly Disabled in 2 of the sections! It's because she's smiling a little bit later than the average baby and also she's not as aware of her surroundings as most babies her age are. I am supposed to call and let them know if she fails her 4th hearing test in a few weeks though. If that be the case, we might then qualify to be a part of the program. We'll see.

We do qualify for another program called Welcome Baby. They are kind of the same thing but they don't deal with severely disable kids. Just the high risk babies that need watching out for. If Darbi does start to slow down developmentally, then we go right over to Kids On The Move but at least she has been monitored the entire way.

This little girl just keeps blowing us away! I love her!!

Matchy Matchy

Oh I love it!! It looks MUCH cuter in person!!

My Craft On

I decided to get a little crafty tonight.. outside of my comfort zone. Paper crafting? No problem.. Anything requiring needles or thread.. kind of a problem. So tonight I made a cute rufflie headband, I crocheted an iPod sleeve, and I learned how to crochet flowers courtesy of You Tube! Tomorrow UVU is doing a mock shooter situation and Clint has to help barricade the roads and tonight they had to set up. I tried to spend my time along wisely. My crochet technique isn't so good.. so don't judge! :)

Holy 8 pound baby Batman!!

We had another dr. appointment today! She is "Below the 3rd Percentile" on EVERYTHING! My doctor doesn't have a "preemie adjusted" growth chart so I don't really know where she's at. She weighs 7 pounds 15 ounces! Yes, the title came from Clint today. :) We are consistently gaining about a 1/2 pound a week! She also had 2 shots today :( and is currently asleep on my chest sweating out a fever. :( She's so sad. We have been moved from 1/8 liter of oxygen to 1/16 and if she does well, we will move to 1/32 in a month and from there we start working her OFF OF IT!! She's coming off of the oxygen much faster that I anticipated.

Oh.. and another thing.. SHE HASN'T POOPED IN A WEEK!! After going 24 hours without a BM I was freaking out and calling the doctor. They said to wait a few days, see what happens, and at my appointment we would talk about it if it was still a problem. The doctor wasn't worried though! He poked her a bunch and said there is "no sack of potatoes" in there and she's fine! The longest he's seen a baby go without stooling is 25 days!! I can't imagine! Thinking about that gives me a cold sweat! YIKES! She has been super gassy though.. it fools me everytime. I'm SURE I'm about to change a beastie but she's a little tease! :)

As of the last post, as you have seen, she has started to smile! It takes a lot to get her to smile for you but they are 100% real and I LOVE them! The cooing kind of started Tuesday. I haven't heard her much since but she's experimenting. Maybe the fluid in her ears is draining and she can hear herself.

I still need to get a picture of it.. but I'm thinking... her eyes... are turning... brown.

Smiley Face

She has started smiling... and I mean really smiling!! I don't have my camera around when she's in the mood so my camera phone will have to suffice.

First Day On the Job

Yesterday Darbi came to work with me for the first time! Normally.. this is a HUGE no-no. There are SO many germs at work but it was the lesser of two evils. Clint thinks he's coming down with something and I can't leave her with him if he's for SURE all germy. I knew I would be one of just a few people at work tonight and I completely sanitized EVERYTHING in my area and anything I would be touching nearby and Darbi mostly stayed in her carseat until she got too upset. Then in was on to the borrowed sling from Becky (that works pretty dang awesome!) to where she fell right asleep and stayed that way for most of the night. That thing made it so easy for me to type that I had no problem. Clint just needs to get better now! Ignore the mess that is around me. It's all about the creativity!! :) And don't forget... this sale ends today!!

Where have all the Cheez Balls gone?!

You are probably used to seeing Audrey do all the posting, but now it's my turn! Today, for some odd reason, I had a craving for Cheez Balls... Remember the cans of melt in your mouth goodness that Planters used to produce? Yes, that's right... USED to produce! They have recently discontinued the production of Cheez Balls. For all of you who have forgotten about these incredible goodies, but would like to sign a petition, please do so!

Eyes & Ears

Today Darbi had another doctor's appointment with the eye doctor to check the progression of her ROP. I am pleased to say that he doesn't want to see her anymore!! He cleared her which means we are into Zone 3 on both eyes which means we are in. the. clear. for not needing surgery!!! We are so excited! The procedure for checking her eyes is so harsh and she screams through the whole thing so I'm happy she won't have to go through that anymore!

We also had her 3rd hearing check on her ears at the hospital today. Unfortunately, she failed again. :( BUT the good news is- she is failing because of the fluid in her ears and that is all. We have another appointment to check in one month and if she fails again, we may consider tubes so we can drain the fluid. Once the fluid is gone, there still could be some permanent damage (so I am told..) so we don't know for sure how well she will be able to hear. I think she'll be fine though. Clint can't hear that well sometimes so maybe it's in her genes. ;)

She'll Warm Up

This was Darbi's first time meeting Crew, the sweet boy who gave up his isolette the day she was born. Is he not the cutest thing EVER?? Shameless flirt, that boy.. even with me!!

Crew, don't you worry. She's not always this fussy. :)

He tolerated her dramatics very nicely (which is hopefully a tell-tale sign of his tolerance of her when they start dating someday!) HA!

Megan, I stole these next pics from you because your pics turned out better! :)

A happier babe

Megan & I (Crew is a whopping 10+ pounds!! He was SO heavy!) :)

We had the boys (Clint and his bro Kade) holding the babe's for a bit and you can see that, as much as they loved holding 2 crying/hungry babies, their attention still is focused on the game on tv.. not even a glance in our direction!

Update on My New Best Friend

Here's a map of how my night went

10:30pm - I laid Darbi down in the Nap Nanny, she looked around for a few minutes, then shut her eyes and went to sleep!

2:30am - She woke up. I fed her. Then she was wide awake for about 30 minutes and ONLY wanted to be held. :( Then she started to get a bit drowsy so I laid her in the Nap Nanny again with her bink this time.. and after I had to put it back in about 3 times, she went to sleep at about 3:30.

9:30am - THAT'S RIGHT. 9:30. That's probably not very healthy for her to go 7 hours between feedings but she's happy and wide awake now! I cannot believe it.. AND I got 6 STRAIGHT hours of sleep.

Nap Nanny... I love you. :)

My New Best Friend

I don't want to jinx it BUT... this is my new best friend. I laid Darbi in it and 5 minutes later.. SHE WAS ASLEEP! For the last two nights, she's been screaming her head off ALL NIGHT because of gassiness. It's been rough and I'm running out of ideas. A super awesome friend of mine let me borrow this and I'm already sold! She's been out for about 30 minutes now. Here's hoping for a good nights' sleep! :)

I love a good sale!!

It's a DANG good discount and their stuff is SO cute! Check out this, this, and this... just a few of my faves. Just print off the coupon and take it in to the store.. (not online.. sorry..) It's at least worth a looksie! :)