A couple fun pictures

Sharon's wearing clothes. This was an outfit that my mom got for Sharon. It's a good thing we can have her wear it now because she most likely won't fit into it when she comes home. She is now up to 5 lbs 11 oz & we are really looking forward to that 6 lb mark. It is so much easier to hold her now that she is bigger! She is working hard to figure out how to take the bottle & gets a little better at it every day. This is the last big hurdle before she gets to come home!Here is our first family picture. One of the nurses was nice enough to take a picture of the three of us with our camera the other day. It will be nice to get some pictures eventually that aren't in hospital NICU lighting. She sure is getting big, though!

No more isolation

On Sunday the contact precautions were lifted, which means that we no longer have to wear the gloves, masks & gowns. Hallelujah! Also, while Ammon was visiting Sharon on Sunday they put her in a regular nursery bed & moved her out of her room into the main section with all the other babies. She is right in the middle & looks great! She is up to 5 lbs 1 oz, & is doing so well. She's still working on taking the bottle, but does better every few days. We are so amazed at how strong she is and can't wait to bring her home!
I am definitely excited for the Glendale baby shower on Saturday because I've made a slideshow of Sharon & it really shows her amazing growth! You'll love it, & possibly cry!

It's been awhile

Oh, I know I've been away for awhile, and oh what a week it's been! My grandmother had to have surgery on Tuesday, came home on Wednesday & was still feeling a little jittery. Then, I came down with a fever on Thursday night, the same night that we noticed something strange on our dog's rear-end. Friday morning my fever was still there, so I was advised to go see a doctor & hopefully be prescribed tamaflu, which is just prescribed for the H1N1 (and I'm Miss Piggy). I was supposed to take our dog, Jack, to the vet to get checked out, but since I wasn't feeling too hot (haha, do you get it), Ammon had to take off work so that he could drive him down. He also ended up taking the rest of the day off, because his coworkers didn't want him coming if he'd been infected, too. After Jack's pleasant rectal exam we were told that he had an anal pollup (sp?), which would have to be surgically removed. One of his anal glands was also blocked and slightly infected, so it had to be drained. He had surgery on Friday, which apparantly went well. He certainly looked really sad when we went to pick him up afterward. He'd been yelping from the back room ever since we walked in the door, & then he came out wearing the "cone of shame" (movie anyone?). He was all hunched over because of the pain, & whimpered & whined the entire evening & then in to the night. Ammon stayed the night with him at my parent's house, while I stayed at Grandma's trying to sweat off my fever.
Then, Grandma started experiencing tingling all over her body, which can be negative side-effects from the surgery she had. This morning she had to go back to the hospital to stay over night, missing my brother's Eagle Court of Honor, to get more blood tests & receive a calcium supplement.
And, on top of all the, because I've had a fever, I haven't been able to go see Sharon for two days now, & it is so hard to be away from her for so long! Every day she grows bigger, & I feel like I am missing so much! I barely spend any time with her as it is, & I'm sure the nurses know her better than I do, so missing these few days feels like a huge loss to me! I know I'm all emotional from being sick, & having Jack walking around with a giant cone on his head, running into things & being totally freaked out, but she's my baby & I'm not allowed to see her!
Luckily I can still call & get updates, which is why I wanted to blog tonight in the first place. Because she is almost 5 pounds! Yesterday she weighed 4 lbs 15 1/2 oz. We are hoping she breaks the 5 lb mark tonight. I think I will call back in a few minutes, because they usually weigh her at 11 PM & it's 10:55 right now. I'll let you all know soon!
Sorry for this sort of whiny, long, & pathetic post, but I really needed to get some of it off my chest.

I need your help

Hello friends! Before I give a quick update on Sharon, I have a request. Ammon & I recently made a trip to Wal-mart to start a gift registry for upcoming baby showers. As we cruised through aisle after aisle of baby wonderland we found all kinds of neat gadgets & helpful items. Then, we came to the sippy cup aisle &, after staring at the many cups (ones with hard tips, those with soft ones, non-spill, ergonomic, all kinds of shapes & colors), we realized that we were totally clueless. We have no idea what kind of sippy cup Sharon is going to like. How does anyone go about choosing the right sippy cup?
We had a little bit of the same problem in the bottle area, because there are just so many to choose from! We did have a little help, though, because we have a slight advantage over other parents who make registries before their baby is born. Sharon really likes her Soothie pacifier that she has at the hospital. They make bottles with nipples that are the same shape as the pacifiers, so we decided to put those on the registry.
My request from you, especially you mothers, is that you leave a comment with your favorite baby item, something that someone gave you at your baby shower that you can't live without, something that most people don't think of getting, or something that your baby just loves! I just need ideas of what to put on the registry. Thanks for your help!

So, Sharon is doing really well. She is now up to 4 lbs 9 oz & has finally started looking like a normal newborn. She is so much easier to hold now since she has so few tubes connected to her. She also isn't as sensitive to handling as she was before her surgery. She is now taking at least some of every feeding from a bottle, though she tends to get kind of tired, so they put the rest down the feeding tube. We have even started a little down the road to breastfeeding. She hasn't really gotten anything out, but when she tries she has a pretty strong suck. She does like being cuddled against me while the milk goes down her tube. She had her first tub bath yesterday in a small hospital bucket. She was definitely not happy about that. She is doing well, and we can't wait until she's ready to come home!

Video of Grandma & Sharon

Here's the video of my mom's first time holding Sharon.

Sharon & Grandma

Sharon is doing so well! She is now in an open isolette, which means she has to work a little bit harder to keep up her body temperature. She's doing great at it, though. My mom held Sharon for the first time yesterday & she was so excited! Sharon, however, just tried to poop the entire time. I love this picture of Sharon because she is really beginning to look like a regular newborn. She makes newborn faces & is getting so big (it's all relative here)!

First Bottle

Sharon was switched from Sipap to High Flow yesterday. High flow is just a simple tube with nose prongs, and it really just reminds Sharon to breathe & she has to do all the work herself. Being on this means that she can now bottle feed, so we were able to give her her first bottle while we were there. She did so well, and didn't choke at all! She obviously didn't eat it all because it takes practice to get the process down, but she did so well! Today she is just 4 grams under 4 pounds! Almost there, & doing awesome! Also, with the high flow, it is so much easier to hold her and move positions. She doesn't have nearly as many tubes and wires attached! Yea!