Avery - 1 week old

On July 1st, Avery was 1 week old. It was the same day she also came home from the NICU for good. And Mommy and Daddy's 2 year anniversary. What a blessed day! It was interesting bringing her home. It wasn't a typical farewell from the hospital. It was nerve-wracking and scary... she was still a little peanut. And in the NICU she was hooked up to monitors to show her strong heartbeat and prove she was breathing correctly and enough. Unhooking her was terrifying, yet exciting at the same time. After a week, the nurses already could tell how often she ate and how often she slept. We knew she didn't really fuss when she needed a diaper change, but she sure could get mad if she wasn't fed fast enough. It's weird she was already on this schedule. It was also weird knowing in that past week that as often as one of us tried to be there, nurses were still feeding her, burping her, holding her... it was a sad thought, but the one thing that made it better was knowing from now on she was OURS and only OURS! :) When we got her home, we had a few visitors and after work hours, we had several more visitors. Although it was fun to show her off, it was also tiring. And it was weird once everyone left and it was so quiet in our house. And that was the first night we had to get up several times throughout the night for feedings. All in all, she was a wonderful and easy baby. She ate on a pretty regular basis, and in between she slept. Preemies tend to sleep a lot because they really should still be in the womb and they don't need a lot of stimulation. Plus, they tend to grow bigger when they sleep a lot (I have a feeling this will be much different when our new full-term baby gets here).

I swear, Andrew must have gotten up about 10 times in the middle of the night to check that she was breathing in the cradle next to us. After that, we moved the Angel Care monitor from her crib into the cradle, although she only lasted a few nights in the cradle by our bed; she seemed to like her own bed better and she slept longer and was more rested while in her own bed.

I remember how scared I was that first night, yet so excited.... when I can figure out how to work this Mac, I'll post some pictures of Avery from the NICU and our first week home with her (the cutest little redheaded baby you've ever seen).