12-30-08

Just a quick update...Zoey has had a really good day. She continues to do well with her eating. Her oxygen levels are finally stabilizing. They have been weening her down little by little. Yay! I don't think it will be long before she is off of it. She is holding her temperature. She continues to put on weight. She is 3lbs 2oz! Woohoo! They are letting her sleep on her back now a little bit too. Everything is headed in the right direction. Her daddy and I are so proud of her! Mark is headed back up here tomorrow. We have missed him. My mom and I have had a wonderful time. We are looking forward to Uncle Steve, Aunt Callie, Uncle Brian and Aunt Becky coming to visit tomorrow. We can't wait for you guys to meet our princess! We hope you guys have a fun safe New Year's. Thank you for your continued prayer support and encouragement. Zoey is a miracle and is doing well because God answers prayers! We love you!

Macy and Zoey

12-29-08

Don't you just want squeeze her?! I know I'm the mommy, but this is the cutest, sweetest baby in the whole world!

We love you Daddy! Hope you have a wonderful day! We miss you!

Love,

Zoey and Macy

12-28-08

Today was a big day for Zoey Kate. Today was the first day that Zoey got to wear clothes! I have been waiting to dress my little doll. After I had Zoey, Aunt Ashton bought out the preemie section at Babies R Us in Lubbock. She has been holding her own body temperature better, so they let me put clothes on her today. So, of course we had to have PINK. I got to hold her today for the majority of the afternoon. She continues to do well on her feeding and taking a pacifier. I don't think it will be long before she is nursing and taking a bottle. In last picture, you can see that she is sucking her finger. My little doll baby has moved up a weight class...3 lbs 1 oz!!!! I think I'm seeing her first roll...haha! Her oxygen level is still fluctuating. We are believing that it will level out soon. I know that she hates having that nasal canula in her nose because she is constantly pulling at it. I can't wait until they can take that out. She did not desate one time during the time I 'kangarooed' her. Kangarooed, I think I just made up a word. My mom got here safely. My dad rode up here with my mom for a 20 minute Zoey visit, only to turn around and head back to Roswell with Mark. I just heard from Mark and he made it home. Praise God for traveling mercies. It's hard to believe that Zoey will be 3 weeks old tomorrow. Two babies in our pod got to go home today. I can't wait until it's our turn! God willing, it won't be long! Well, I'm off to bed. Love you guys.

Macy

12-27-08

Today's pictures are during her noon feeding. They are still giving her full feeds through the tube in her nose, but today we fed her a tiny bit through a syringe. We worked on several steps today to get her closer to nursing. As you can tell from the pictures, she is still trying to figure the whole thing out. She is doing so awesome though. Everyday she is learning more and more. We will continue working on it everyday. Zoey's chest x-ray was done this morning. The verdict was that she does have some tiny air sacs in her lungs that have 'deflated'. The oxygen help that they are giving her is helping to re-inflate them. The doctor told us that this is NOTHING to be worried about. It is just due to the fact that she is a preemie and that her lungs are still developing. They feel like she will only have to be on oxygen for a few more days. They had already weened her oxygen help down a little bit today. Praise God! Zoey continues to gain weight. Last night she had gained another ounce. She is now 2lb. 15oz. We are pushing for 3 pounds tonight! We spent most of the day at the hospital. I was able to hold her for a little over an hour today. I didn't want to put her back. She is so precious and even at two and a half weeks old, you can see that she has a cute little personality. The more they are allowing me to do with her, the more it has set in that I'm really a MOMMY! I am loving every minute of it and know this is the job that I was meant to do. It's such a blessing. Mark is leaving tomorrow to head home. He will be back Wednesday. My mom is headed up here to be with me. Please pray for traveling mercies for both of them. Mark and I wanted to thank all of you who sent us restaurant gift certificates. Your generosity is incredible and we are SO grateful! We have felt so much love and support that we will never be able to express the thanks we feel in our hearts. The body of Christ has been amazing. We pray blessings on all of you! Stay tuned for more Zoey...

Love always,

Macy

12-26-08

Extreme close up...Look at those BIG brown eyes!

Mommy snuck in some socks.

Just a quick update on Zoey. Her blood work came back with a good report today. Praise the Lord! She is still on quite a bit of oxygen help. Her levels have still been fluctuating all over the place. Her lungs sound good which is a good sign. The doctors have decided to do an x-ray of her chest and lungs tomorrow morning. They think that some of the tiny air sacs in her lungs are not filling up with air and that this may be causing the desating. We are praying that x-ray of her lungs and chest come back with a 'beautiful lung' report. Mark and I are hoping and praying that her chest, lungs and breathing will be healthy. Zoey did have a monumental moment today. She found her thumb! She started sucking her thumb. The nurse told us that this HUGE for a preemie. This means that she is becoming more aware of her surroundings and 'learning'. She continues to take her pacifier like a big girl. Each time she sucks on it, she is becoming more coordinated. Another praise is that, as of last night, Miss Zoey is weighing in at 2lbs 14oz! Woohoo! They have started fortifying her milk with extra calories to try and plump her up. She continues to do awesome on her feeds. The more she gains, the more they bump up the amount of milk she receives. Three pounds is right around the corner! Please pray for her oxygen to level out soon. The sooner it does, the sooner we can work on more steps to get closer home, like nursing and weening her out of her isolet. Everyday we see that she is working hard and we are so proud of her! Thanks for your continued prayers! More later, Macy

12-25-08

Merry Christmas! We hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas. We hope you enjoy the pictures of our Christmas miracle! This hat came on 12 month old Christmas outfit that was given to us. My 2 pounder fits inside of it! We have had a day of ups and downs. As you can tell from the pictures, Zoey had to be put on oxygen this morning. Yesturday, she started desating. This means that her oxygen saturation level has started dropping. She has not had trouble with this before. She is still breathing on her own. The 'quality' of the oxygen that she is breathing on her own is what is dropping. This nasal canula is helping to give her quality of oxygen a boost. Even on the oxygen help, they have had a hard time stabilizing her oxygen level. The doctors don't seem to be very concerned because her heart rate is stable and she is breathing well. They said it is probably just due to the fact that her lungs are premature. They will be doing blood work on her either tonight or tomorrow morning. She has also been very lethargic today, which is very uncharacteristic of my fiesty girl. We are specifially asking for prayer that her oxygen levels will go back up. We are also praying that the blood work will have good reports. We continue to speak and pray her name "LIFE" over her. She is amazing and God has blessed us this Christmas with a miracle despite the ups and downs of today. Mark and I appreciate all of your incredible prayer support. We feel God's arms around us.

This year Chrismas has taken on a different hue for us. It has been anything but typical. We have missed being home, missed traditions, missed our family. We have seen God's hand, but it has still been emotional and hard. We read a devotion today and wanted to share it with you in summation of what Christmas has meant to us this year:

As the year draws to a close, Christmas offers its wonderful message: Emmanuel. God with us. He who resided in Heaven, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and the Spirit, willingly descended into our world. He breathed our air, felt our pain, knew our sorrows, and died for our sins. He didn't come to frighten us, but to show us the way to warmth and safety.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people. Luke 1 :68

We love you!

Mark, Macy and Zoey

12-23-08

Finally sleeping....
Holding her paci like a big girl :)

Telling her Aunt Ashton enough pictures! haha

Already stickin' her guns up for Texas Tech :)

A little confused...maybe by the camera or the HUGE paci

"...How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news." Romans 10:15

Sleepin' peacefully with one foot out :)

Giving some perspective with mommy's hand

Sleeping hard before we woke her up to feed :)

This is Aunt Ashton again...just a quick note on Zoey tonight. She is now in a new pod in the intermediate care. She had a big day today. They took out her IV line today and Zoey is much more comfortable. She is still taking full feeds and digesting them well. We need to pray that she will continue to digest well and that she will digest the full feeding without any residual left in her tummy. She now weighs 2 lbs. 11 oz. so she has gained about 1/2 an ounce. Some fun little facts...her head measures 27 1/2 centimeters in circumference and her tummy measures 23 centimeters in circumference. She was about 2 centimeters longer on Sunday when they measured her. (that is a little less than 1/2 an inch) We are so excited about Zoey's step down today to a new unit and can't wait for the next step...HOME!! Thanks for your continued prayers...Aunt Ashy <><

12-22-08

This is Aunt Ashton posting for Macy tonight. She is very tired and is resting tonight. Her blood pressure was lower today which is answered prayer. She got to hold Zoey for almost two hours today so they both were happy campers this afternoon. Zoey continues to do wonderful and get nothing but good reports from the doctors. She took her first full feeding of 22 cc's this morning and digested it quite well. She had her second full feeding around noon and digested that VERY WELL with not one, but two, dirty diapers that mommy had the pleasure of changing. Her tummy is empty before each feeding which proves that her system is doing exactly what it needs to do between feedings. Tomorrow, if she continues to digest feedings so well, they will completely take out her IV line. This will be so much more comfortable for her as it is pretty big and bulky on her tiny arm. Macy just called into the nurse to see how much she weighs tonight and, like most women, her weight is fluctuating. :) She hasn't lost any or gained any so she is still sitting at 2 lbs. 10.5 oz for the second day in a row. This is good news. She continues to be very fiesty and is getting more active everyday. When Macy and I went in this morning to see her, we uncovered her incubator and she had wiggled out of her straps and was in the process of trying to turn herself over. If those straps had not been there our tiny little Zoey girl would have turned herself completely over with those LONG legs and arms. I put in a picture of her in the process just for proof. She might be tiny but she is one strong little baby. She is also smiling more and more. This morning when I was telling her good morning she peeked at me to let me know she heard me and then gave me a smile. This melted my heart to say the least. I talked to her in utero as much as I could and I think she kinda remembers my voice...either that or the sound of my camera since I have now taken almost 500 pictures of her. :) I love my job and my niece!! haha She gave the camera another great smile today while she was sleeping on Macy during "kangaroo" time. It is the third picture down in case you can't tell. She is so precious and we are so thankful for God's mighty hand at work in her life. Grammy, Mommy, and I are having a wonderful time with it being just "us girls". I will have a couple more days up here to take pictures so I hope you are all enjoying looking at our BEAUTIFUL Zoey Kate. I'm off to rest now...Love to all!! Aunt Ashton <><