Bejeweled

A couple of weeks ago Kathryn had gone to VBS and gotten some jewel stick-on stickers. On the way home, she decided to decorate herself, and this is what she came home looking like...




She decided to be generous and share with her brother, who got in on the action...

2 Months Old!

Our sweet girl is 2 months old today!!! She continues to grow, although not quite as quickly as she did the first few months home! She now weighs 7lb 6oz, and is roughly 21 inches long. I'm not sure where the lies on the percentiles (she has her checkup at the pediatrician next week), but I'm sure it's on the low end, for weight at least. :) However, it is obvious to most people that she has grown. We especially notice it when she's in her car seat, as she now doesn't get lost in it!

We are noticing more and more awake time for her, with more alertness. Although she will often smile in her sleep and sometimes make smile-like faces when she's awake, we have yet to have a smile in response to someone or something. We are anxiously awaiting that moment! She is having longer periods of time where her eyes will meet ours, and that is fun to see her develop in that way! She can lift her head up when on her tummy, but it falls right back down again, so we are working on that skill. We also do Physical Therapy exercises with her, which are pretty basic right now and include range of motion, encouraging her to get her hands to her face, and tuck her feet/legs up to her middle.

Waverly still eats every three hours during the day (48mL/hour, and we are increasing it by 1mL every two days) and continuously at night for 10 hours (21mL/hour). We will work on increasing her nighttime intake once we get her daytime intake up to 65mL each feeding. She is doing well keeping her feeds down, although will still spit up occasionally.

Some other fun things she does is open her mouth and smack her lips into an oval. We aren't sure if she's trying to "talk" or doing it in response to reflux! But it's cute! She loves to be held, but does pretty well in her bouncy seat or on her boppy pillow under the play gym as well. She gets lots of love from her siblings, who also love to hold her. She does well in her carseat when we're out and about doing family activities or going to doctor's appointments. She did well this month on her first trip to the grocery store, too. Now, on to some pictures!

Every morning, she tends to have a fussy period sometime between 4 and 6a.m. If she won't settle down, I'll pull her into bed with me to snuggle and try to get a little more rest. (Although it's quite tricky to do it with her tangle of monitor and feeding pump cords...!) Here she is this morning snuggling in bed!She looks pretty in headbands... We were at a church program, and she was looking at me.





Funny face.
Sleepy smiles.
Every lady should cross her legs when sleeping on the Boppy...

First Walk

The day Waverly came home from the hospital, we were all excited to go on her first walk as a family. After being in the NICU and never being outside in the fresh air and sunshine, I think she was happy too!

Coming Home!

Pictures from the day Waverly came home, after being in the NICU for 30 days! The kids were thrilled to have her home, and didn't want to leave her side!

When we got her out of her carseat, they wanted to hold her. Can you tell she was so proud?!?

Our THREE kiddos!!!
So excited and proud!
I LOVE this pic!

Awana Program

A few weeks ago the big kids had their Awana awards program at church. This awards program is a big reason why they did Awana this year in the first place. Last year we attended the program, and Kathryn saw all the kids on the stage getting awards and performing a song, and was heartbroken that she wasn't up there as well. So we told her she could do Awana this year, and she was thrilled (and for a while asked every week if it was her turn to get up on stage!).

The Puggles, Jackson's age group, was first to get their awards. It was hilarious seeing all the two year old chaos up there! Can you tell? He didn't know where to go...This is a blurry picture, but he was tickled to be on stage too!
With his award!
This is the Cubbies group, for Kathryn's age. Can you tell the difference in this picture than in Jackson's pictures? These kids actually stand in a line!
It was a very serious thing for Kathryn. She loves feeling like such a big girl!
We were so thankful for the Awana program this year! Kathryn learned a new verse every week, and I love how the Word of God is hidden in her heart. (Jackson's class did Bible lessons as well, but they didn't really memorize verses since some of them don't talk much yet!)

Sweet Baby

I couldn't decide which pic was best, so here are three very similar ones! :) She'll be coming home very soon, and we are SO excited! Remember you can check out her blog for more specific updates as we get them!

Family!

Waverly has had lots of love from her family in her almost-three weeks of life!





I love this last picture, how her Great-Grandmom, Great-Granddad, and Great Uncle Dan are hovering over her! They seriously did this for hours while they were visiting her, watching her sweet sleepy smiles (she loved it when Grandmom called her "gorgeous"!). Waverly, you are LOVED!

Family Pictures

Our family of FIVE!
Peeking at his baby sister...

She's such a proud big sister, and SO happy that it's a girl!

Waverly's Blog!

We've set up a new blog for Waverly's updates. Please visit www.waverlysjourney.blogspot.com to keep up to date on our little girl!

Waverly Ann Sink!!!

We'd love for you to meet the newest member of our family, Waverly Ann Sink!


She was born on Sunday, May 8 (Mother's Day!!!) at 6:23a.m., weighing 5lbs 5.4 oz, and 18.75 inches long. She is precious, and we are so thankful for our little blessing! She's been in the NICU (the reason for the tape on her face...I call it her mustache!). More updates soon to follow.

Update

Warning: Men, read at your own risk...Thanks for being patient with us during a little silence. I was admitted to the hospital last night (Friday), and they started Cervidil. They checked me this morning after 12 hours, and it did little to help my cervix. However, the doctor wanted to go ahead and try Pitocin to see if that would help to dilate me. After 8 hours on the Pitocin, I had only dilated to 1cm. So, they stopped the Pitocin for the night, let me eat dinner (woohoo! see the above picture of me "eating" my liquid lunch...), and at about 7:00 they are going to give me another dose of Cervidil. They will leave that in place overnight, and then will start more Pitocin in the morning. The doctor feels confident that that will do the trick, and we should have a baby by tomorrow. I was quite discouraged earlier in the day by all this, but am ok now (maybe because I finally got to EAT!). I am encouraged to know that we are getting closer to meeting our little one, even if it is a little later than we thought. Even though it's been a bit of a boring and slow day, I am also trying to be thankful for the quiet time (how often do us moms long for just a few minutes of peace, much less a whole day?!?). Thanks for all your prayers and concerns. A few specific prayer requests:
-the Cervidil could spark labor for me on my own. That'd be great!
-rest for tonight, if labor doesn't start.
-strength for delivery.
-and of course, prayers for our little Baby!

Baby is a-comin'!

After my appointments on Monday and then again today, the doctors agree that they should induce me on Saturday at 37 weeks along. So, I have one more appointment tomorrow to check on Baby, and am scheduled to go in the hospital Friday evening to start Cervidil and then will start the Pitocin on Saturday to start labor. The baby looked good on the ultrasound today. It still has the fluid in its ventricles, but was "breathing" well (we saw bubbles going in and out of its nose...so cute!). We also saw Baby swallow, which was good. And on the Biophysical Profile on Monday, Baby scored 10 out of 10. So, all those are good signs. For now, we just have to wait a few more days to see who God created this little one to be. And little he/she is...they estimate 5 pounds! Although that is normally just an estimate, they feel like they are pretty close on its size since they are able to get such good pictures and measurements due to all the amniotic fluid. So, about half the size of my last kid....whoa! Thanks so much for all your prayers, encouragement, offers of help, etc. We have been so blessed by the body of Christ and friends and family over the past several weeks. We look forward to introducing you to our Little Blessing very soon!

"I like dirt!"

Yes, that's dirt all around his mouth. It looked even better in person! This boy is so silly!
He just pointed to my belly button and said "Nose", as in, the baby's nose. He loves to feel the baby go "bonk", as he calls it, when Baby kicks. He is talking more and more these days. Common phrases are "She hit me", "I don't want to", "Watch this", and "Look at me!" He is still as sweet as he can be, but also in a very two-year-old phase of challenging what is asked of him. He still has a hilarious sense of humor. He loves to hit the baseball, and does so left-handed. He also golfs left-handed, but will throw and do other things right-handed. He likes to play with trains and cars, and often lines them up in a perfect line. He gets super excited when he sees trains "choo choos" when we're driving. He can recognize a few letters, including J (for Jackson), K (for Kathryn, who he usually calls Sissy), and B. He also counts, although I'm not sure how high he can get by himself. He often gets 1-4 by himself, and then sporadic numbers from there until 10. He likes to point out things that go around ("round, round"). He still doesn't seem to know his colors very well...he guesses everything is either blue or orange. Wonder where he gets that color combo from? :) He's sitting here with me now, and desperately wants to type, so I'll let him close it out.

llllll;hyi-iy

Preliminary Amnio Results

We got a call from the doctor on Friday with the preliminary amnio results. We will get the full results by the end of this week, but before the full results are ready, they run the test for the three most common chromosomal abnormalities: Down's Syndrome, Trisomy 13, and Trisomy 18. These three make up about 90% of the chromosomal abnormalities seen in infants. According to the doctor, this preliminary test has a "high degree of accuracy", and ours came back clear on all three. So, it looks like those are not what we are dealing with at this point. Like I said, the rest of the results (which tests for other chromosomal abnormalities) should come back by the end of this week. Of course, if there is something else going on with Baby (genetic, neurological, digestive, etc.), we won't know anything still, since they can't check for those via amniocentesis. So, we continue to wait and see! I have appointments this week on Monday and Wednesday so far (and we'll see if they add more on!). Thanks for the continued prayers as we wait and see what God has in store for our sweet little one!